High voter turnout expected in Kodiak today

As elsewhere in the nation, a day of decision is underway on Kodiak Island. In the outlying villages, voting will take place in community halls and other gathering places. In the city of Kodiak, there are four polling stations:

• Kodiak Precinct Number 1, in front of the Gerald Wilson Auditorium at the Kodiak High School.
• Kodiak Precinct Number 2 at the Community Teen Center
• The Mission Road Precinct at the Bayside Fire Hall
• And the Flats Precinct at the Womens Bay Fire Hall.

Polls open at seven in the morning and close at eight. Voters are asked to wear masks and socially distance. Alise Rice, the clerk for the Kodiak Island Borough, says the state has supplied polling stations with plenty of masks and gloves for voters.

“Oh, my goodness,” Rice said. “a lot of supplies. We’re like swimming in gloves and masks. We have more than enough for everybody. ”

The Mission Precinct at the Bayside Fire Hall is one of the largest on the Island. Rice says they’ve opened up more space for voters there, to allow for social distancing and increased voter traffic.

“Bayside has opened up two of the fire engine bays. They’ve pulled their engines out. They’ll have quite a bit of space in there to allow more people at the same time,” Rice said. “Lines are expected to be long there, because they do have a very large turnout.”

Rice says they’ve also reconfigured the space at the Gerald Wilson Auditorium in Precinct 2, so the elderly won’t have to walk as far to cast their ballots, as they did in last month’s municipal election.

Presidential elections historically draw large turn-out in Alaska, but voter interest is high this year for a number of other reasons. There are two ballot measures — one that would increase taxes on the oil industry and another that would change how Alaskans vote.

There’s also the hotly contested U.S. Senate Race between Sen. Dan Sullivan and his challenger, Al Gross. Combined, both campaigns and outside groups have spent about 48 million dollars.

Also, there’s the legislative race between Senator Gary Stevens, a Republican, and his opponent Greg Madden, a Soldotna chiropractor, running on the Alaskan Independence Party ticket.

Representative Louise Stutes is also on the ballot, unopposed.