People all over Juneau turned out to vote on Election Day. They got to decide who to elect for governor, U.S. House and Senate, and for state House.
Cars sped along Egan Drive in the Mendenhall Valley on a brisk Tuesday morning as Haines Republican Annette Kreitzer waved signs with her supporters. The sign wavers got a break from the rain as the sun rose in the distance. The occasional car honked as it drove by.
“We’re out here at the McDonald’s intersection and waving to folks just as a visual reminder that it’s Election Day and time for folks to go ahead and get to the polls sometime today if they haven’t already voted,” she said.
Kreitzer is challenging Democrat Andi Story for the state House seat that represents part of the Mendenhall Valley, Auke Bay, Out the Road, Haines, Skagway, Klukwan and Gustavus. She says she voted early back home in Haines.
Don Haberger was one of the sign wavers with Kreitzer. He said he voted early and voted for Republican candidates.
“One of my interests, of course, is developing our state, infrastructure development, those kinds of things,” he said.
Haberger voted yes on the ballot measure to repeal ranked choice voting, though he ended up ranking Republican candidates for governor on his ballot.
“I ranked the red for governor since that’s a more complicated race,” he said.
Incumbent Andi Story and her supporters were also waving signs just a few miles away in the Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge off Egan. She hadn’t voted yet at that point.
“We like to vote as a family, my son and my husband and I. So we’ll go when he’s off work at noon today,” Story said.
People across Juneau spent the morning going out to vote. Christina Love cast her ballot at the Mendenhall Valley Public Library. She supported keeping ranked choice voting. Referring to notes on her phone, Love said the system allows her to make sure her vote doesn’t go to people she doesn’t support, like Sen. Dan Sullivan.
“I want my vote to count. I do not want my vote to count for him under any circumstances,” Love said. “And that’s one of the things I appreciate about ranked choice voting. I can vote for the people I’m supporting without being forced to rank someone I don’t.”
Leon Demmert voted at the Alaska Electric Light and Power office in Lemon Creek. He had the day off as a diesel mechanic for Hecla’s Greens Creek mine.
Demmert is Lingít and said his concerns about trawling are the sole reason he went out to vote.
“The person I heard the most advocating for stricter policies was Mary Peltola, and that’s kind of the one thing that got me out to vote because my family and I are — we’ve lived off the land for as long as we can remember,” he said. “So making sure that my grandkids and my great grandkids can say the same thing when they’re my age.”
Demmert also voted to repeal ranked choice voting and open primaries, saying it doesn’t make sense to use that system to vote.
Jake Stone cast his vote downtown at the State Office Building. He said he voted for Democratic candidates like Mary Peltola and Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins. One issue he thought about while voting was education.
“I think that Alaska schools are in a lot of trouble right now, and education funding I think is an incredibly necessary thing just to raise the next generation of Alaskans,” he said.
Twenty-year-old Nathaniel Cruz is a first-time voter. He voted at the Juneau Fire Hall with his dad, Darrel Cruz.
Nathaniel Cruz had other chances to vote before this election, but chose to cast his first ballot this time around.
“Because my favorite candidate is Dan Sullivan, the real Dan Sullivan,” Nathaniel Cruz said, referring to the other Dan Sullivan listed on the ballot.
The incumbent Sullivan was the only bubble he filled in.
“Rank choice voting?” he said. “Um, no, I just voted just for him.”
Darrel Cruz said he helped his son for his first time voting.
“Yeah, just give him the cue, you know, like R stands for Republican, D for Democrat.”
Darrel Cruz voted red down the ballot for the incumbent Sullivan, Nick Begich for U.S. House, and Bernadette Wilson for governor.
“I went with Wilson because she promised us a great amount of dividends, you know, PFD,” he said.
Juneau voters have until 8 p.m. Tuesday to vote in this year’s election. You can find your polling place using the Division of Election’s precinct locator.
It will take weeks to count all of the ballots as absentee ballots continue to come in. The Alaska Division of Elections plans to certify results on Nov. 25.
KTOO collaborated with Alaska Public Media, the Anchorage Daily News and the Alaska Beacon to create a voter guide. You can find that here. Follow the results as they come in at ktoo.org/elections.
