Anchorage voters cast more than 80,000 ballots in this year’s mayoral runoff election, a fairly normal turnout. However, not all of them have been counted.
City elections administrator William Northrop said there are several reasons why a ballot isn’t counted, including if more than one of a household’s mail-in ballots are put in the return envelope, or if no ballot is in the envelope.
But he said the biggest reason is a lack of signature verification.
“Our signature verification team looks at that signature and compares it to the five signatures that are on file that we received from the state, and they look for certain characteristics and to see if they match,” Northrop said. “And if your signature doesn’t match, then you’re gonna get a cure letter.”
Northrop said the city identified about 2,000 ballots with signature issues, though his team has been able to get ahold of many of those voters to fix, or “cure,” them. He said the total number of ballots that need to be cured is around 1,000 now, which is about average for the city’s mail-in elections.
There aren’t enough of those ballots to impact Suzanne LaFrance’s election victory over incumbent Mayor Dave Bronson, but Northrop said people should still cure their ballots.
“Even though it won’t make a difference in this election, it will make a difference in future elections,” Northrop said. “We want to make sure that your signatures are up to date because signatures do change over time.”
Voters who received a cure letter can fix their ballots at the election center, by mail, over email, or using a smartphone.
The deadline for voters to cure ballots is Wednesday, May 29 at 4 p.m.
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.
