Sunday, Oct. 4 is the deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 3 General Election. Alaskans can register to vote, check their voter registration status or update their voter registration information by visiting the Alaska Division of Elections website.
The deadline marks roughly one month before Alaskans will head to the polls to pick their preferred candidate for local and state office, for U.S. House, for U.S. Senate and for Alaska governor.
The Alaska General Election will use ranked-choice voting for state races. Voters will be given the option to vote for more than one candidate in order of preference. Any candidate who receives a simple majority of votes cast will be declared the winner of their race.
If no candidate receives more than 50% of votes cast, the race’s lowest vote-getter will be eliminated. The second-choice votes cast by people who ranked the eliminated candidate first will be redistributed to the remaining candidates. That process continues until one person is pushed over the majority threshold.
Alaskans will consider candidates for U.S. House, U.S. Senate and Alaska governor. All 40 State House seats are on the ballot, too.
Locally, incumbent Republican Rep. Bill Elam is running for reelection to the House District 8 seat, which covers the northern Kenai Peninsula including Nikiski, Sterling, Cooper Landing, Hope and Bear Creek. He faces challenges from Nissa Savage and Frank Quinn, who are both running as nonpartisan candidates.
Incumbent Republican Rep. Justin Ruffridge is also running for reelection to the House District 7 seat, which covers Kenai and Soldotna. He faces a challenge from Democratic candidate Kate Veh.
This year is also the first time Kenai Peninsula Borough and local municipal elections will be held in November. Last year, borough voters aligned state and local election dates with the goal of boosting voter turnout. That decision bumps back all election-related deadlines, meaning Sunday is also the voter registration deadline for local elections.
This year, Kenai Peninsula voters are casting ballots for borough mayor, borough assembly, school board and city council.
