Counting our ballots

The ballots have closed (except the postal ones), and now the hardest work begins. Many people wonder what happens to their ballots after they cast their votes. Let's explore the journey of your ballot and the safeguards that ensure every valid vote counts, and every effort to shed invalid votes.

Whether you vote early or on Election Day, your ballot goes through the same careful verification process. When you cast your vote, it's put into an electronic tabulator that counts each ballot. However, some situations require additional attention.

For instance, "questioned ballots" occur when there's uncertainty about a voter's eligibility or registration status. Election workers carefully investigate these ballots to decide if they qualify for counting, ensuring that only eligible voters' choices are included in the final tally.

A common question involves what happens if someone votes twice. For example, voting early and then again on Election Day. Some people mail in an absentee ballot because they were unsure if they could attend Election Day, but then they also vote on Election Day to "be sure" their vote counts.

This is called duplicate voting, and Alaska has clear procedures to handle such situations. The rule is simple: only the first ballot counted matters. The canvass board, which reviews all election materials, will identify any duplicate votes and ensure that only the first one is included in the final count.

The Canvass Board is important in maintaining election integrity. After polls close, the Board checks all ballots, ensuring voters and officials followed procedures, and resolves any irregularities they find. They are the election detectives, ensuring that every valid vote is counted and that the results accurately reflect voters' intentions.

They have a record of who voted on election day. While reviewing absentee ballots, they may notice a name who mailed one in those ballots. They will pull that ballot and not count it, since the voter's election day ballot has already been tallied.

Proxy voting, which is having someone else vote on your behalf, is illegal in Alaska. Voters have to cast their own ballot, either in person or through another approved voting process.

Mistakes happen, even on ballots. This doesn't mean their entire vote is invalid. If part of a ballot contains an error, such as two selections for the same rank or position, the tabulator will reject the ballot and the voter will place it into a separate bin to be counted later.

Election workers will review those ballots at the same time and will still count the correctly marked portions. For example, if a voter properly marks their choices for governor and state representative but selects two people as their first choice for State Senator, their valid votes for governor and state representative will still count. The workers will not know who cast that ballot, only that it was legally cast.

If you catch the error before you have turned it in, you can ask for a new ballot and the election workers will destroy the incorrect ballot.

Absentee ballots require special attention. Election officials must verify that each absentee voter hasn't also voted in person. If they discover that someone has voted both by absentee ballot and in person, they'll apply the "first ballot cast" rule. The canvass board figured out which ballot arrived first and only counts that ballot in the tally.

Election officials will still count absentee ballots received in the mail as long as they are postmarked by election day and arrive within 10 days of the election for primaries, and 15 days for general and special elections.

The entire post-election process is thorough and transparent. Election workers and the canvass board take their responsibilities seriously, understanding that their work is integral to public trust. At the end of election day, each tabulator prints out a record of the ballots processed, and the actual ballots are kept until the election is certified in case a hand-count if requested.

If you have questions about the voting process, call or visit your local election office. They are there to help. They can provide guidance on proper voting procedures and help you understand how your vote counted.