Anchorage’s municipal election is scheduled for April 7, making the final day to register to vote or update your registration this Sunday, March 8.
This year’s ballot will feature six Assembly seats, two school board seats and ten area-wide propositions covering everything from increased funding for public schools facing massive cuts and growing class sizes to capital spending on parks, roads and public safety.
Voters must be 18 by election day to vote, but can register up to 90 days before their birthday. To register or update your registration, visit voterregistration.alaska.gov.
And contrary to some of last year’s headlines, Anchorage hasn’t turned to by-phone voting.
Anchorage’s elections are still primarily conducted via mail, and ballot packets are slated for mailing on March 17. They can be mailed back in or dropped off at several drop boxes.
What drove those headlines is a relatively new secure portal system that’s designed for anyone who’s overseas, deployed or otherwise unable to vote by mail to request an alternative ballot. Since the adoption of by-mail elections, the city has allowed people to fax or email in their ballots, and in last year’s election, they introduced a new online portal that essentially accomplishes the same task — and can technically be used on your phone.
The head-turning headlines, which breathlessly opined that the city was entering the brave new future of phone voting, prompted a rare public rebuke from the Municipal Clerk’s Office, which called the reporting an “egregious” misrepresentation of the voting method.
According to the Municipal Clerk’s Office, about 200 people have regularly used the remote voting method. The new online portal was used by 136 people in last year’s election.
The state of the race
As with many elections in recent years, the races broadly pit a solid coalition of moderate and progressive members, who’ve held the majority for years and generally aligned with moderate Mayor Suzanne LaFrance, against a motley slate of conservatives ranging from traditional conservatives to far-right wingers. The majority coalition has proven to be quite resilient, handily beating conservative challengers in districts that were once closer to a toss-up. Conservative success has largely been confined to conservative bastions such as Eagle River and South Anchorage.
Conservatives’ electoral ambitions in Anchorage have often been dogged by extreme-right candidates who’ve muddied the races with bigoted and racist statements. That includes school board candidate Alexander Rosales, who has a well-documented history of making posts attacking Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Alaska Natives, liberals and trans people.
Meanwhile, progressive groups have been largely aligned in their support of Anchorage Assembly candidates Sydney Scout (North Anchorage), Anna Brawley (West Anchorage), Janice Park (Midtown) and George Martinez (East Anchorage), while they’ve largely stayed out of the Eagle River and South Anchorage races. In the Anchorage School Board races, the groups have backed Rachel Blakeslee and Paul McDonogh.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Bluesky.
