Poll turnout low: Reapportionment election attracts fewer than 3 percent of registered Valley voters

MAT-SU -- Voter apathy seemed to be the strongest vote cast in Tuesday's reapportionment election, with turnout adding up to fewer than 3 percent of Mat-Su's registered

voters.

Of the 43,300 voters registered in the Valley, the unofficial turnout at the polls was 1,244, with 347 absentee ballots issued. According to the unofficial results released Wednesday, 768 voters approved the reapportionment plan chosen by the borough assembly last year -- but not by a large margin, as 472 voters disapproved of the plan.

Borough Clerk Sandra Dillon said she was not surprised by the low voter turnout, although she said it was the lowest she could remember.

That doesn't mean Dillon's task of finding volunteers to operate the elections was any easier. About 120 people are needed for any election, Dillon said, no matter the number of issues on the ballot or how small the turnout is.

The official results will be reported to the borough assembly on Tuesday, Dillon said, and the results will be finalized at that time.

In the meantime, the canvassing board will review the absentee and questioned ballots. But with only 77 questioned ballots and 347 absentee ballots issued, the task will be relatively quick.

"It won't take them that long," Dillon said.

Dillon said borough staff didn't expect a large number of people to show, simply because there wasn't a lot of debate about the issue.

"The borough's reapportionment was not a controversial issue," Dillon explained, "because the boundaries minimally changed."

It wasn't a very politically charged issue, Dillon said, and a January election didn't make it easier to get people out to vote.

"The public was not used to voting in January," Dillon said.

And because the issue is revisited just once a decade, Dillon said people tend to forget what reapportionment is all about.

Dillon said people are more likely to be affected by the statewide redistricting plan than the borough assembly district reapportionment.

"Where borough [residents] will feel the effects is when the state draws their precincts," Dillon said.

Voting precincts will be redrawn, Dillon said, when the statewide redistricting plan has worked its way through the Alaska court system. The new precincts will likely be determined this summer, as there must be proper notification of the change before the 2002 state election ballots go out.

Right now, Dillon said, there are 25 voting precincts in the borough.

"We'll probably add a couple of precincts," Dillon said.