Anchorage voters have a week left to turn in their ballots for the municipal election. Voters are deciding on who will be the city’s next mayor, and on three school board seats.
As of Monday, the city has received 22,252 ballots from voters. That’s about 3,500 votes shy of the 25,770 ballots the city received by this point in 2018, the first year the city switched over to mail-in elections. However, it’s more votes than the 20,663 ballots the city received during the same period in 2021.
City officials say after switching to mail-in ballots, the 2018 election saw the highest total voter turnout in 20 years at 36 percent. Each year since has seen at least 25 percent voter turnout.
Voters have until April 2 to mail in their ballots, or drop them off at one of the three Anchorage vote centers at City Hall, the Loussac Library or the Eagle River town center. They can also be dropped off at one of the 18 secure drop boxes around town.
As of Monday, more voters had chosen to drop their ballots off in a dropbox rather than send it through the mail.
If no mayoral candidate reaches at least 45 percent of the vote on election day, the top two candidates will move to a runoff election. In 2021, the runoff election saw more than 92,000 ballots cast.
Learn more about where the candidates for Anchorage mayor and school board stand with our comparison tool, and watch the top four mayoral candidates face off in our debate, which aired live on March 21. For more coverage visit alaskapublic.org/elections.
If you have additional questions about the April 2 election, please fill out the form below.
Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
