Positively primary

MAT-SU — If history is a predictor of the future, a small army of volunteers will man 35 precincts around the Valley today to gather the ballots of fewer than 40 percent of local voters.

In addition to deciding some spirited party races, residents will also vote on a pair of ballot measures, including the hotly debated Measure 2, which calls for the creation of the Alaska Coastal Management Program. Along with a new state House district and redrawn precinct lines that have added new polling places, state elections staff has been busy, said Katrin Anderson, regional assistant supervisor for the state Division of Elections.

“There have been quite a few changes,” she said about the precinct boundaries.

For example, people living in the Knik area are used to having one polling place at Knik Elementary School. Today, there are two others at Goose Bay Elementary and Settler’s Bay Community Church. In Meadow Lakes, an additional location has been added at Church on the Rock. Keeping track of how those changes affect where you vote is easy, Anderson said. The state has also rolled out a new locator on its website where voters can enter an address. The locator will show where that address votes and provide driving directions. A link to the locator can be found on the Frontiersman’s home page at frontiersman.com.

“It pulls up a little map of their polling place and directions to the polling place,” Anderson said. “People should know that already, because everybody should have gotten in the mail a new voter registration card. But it’s definitely an awesome tool. We did it this time because of the redistricting, but there are also new districts and precinct numbers.”

Each precinct will have enough ballots to handle a turnout of 65 percent, she said, which “should be plenty.” Anderson added that the Valley’s state elections have never run out of ballots like the municipality of Anchorage did earlier this year.

“We’ve never had that issue and I think we never will,” she said. “We’ve always had enough ballots.”

In the last primary election in 2010, 23,014 of those registered 62,544 in voting districts 13-16 (36.8 percent), which encompasses the Valley, participated, state records show.

One of the most high-profile races in the Valley this year is the Republican primary for the state Senate seat held by incumbent Linda Menard, who has drawn a challenger in Mat-Su Borough School District School Board president Mike Dunleavy.

A new House district created after redrawing boundaries following the 2010 U.S. Census also has been making noise on the Republican side with former borough assemblyman Mark Ewing squaring off against school board member Lynn Gattis.

Another House incumbent, Wes Keller, has a fight on his hands against Republican challenger Roger Purcell, former Houston mayor.

In addition to Measure 2, voters statewide will decide another question in Ballot Measure 1. If passed, Measure 1 increases from $20,000 to $50,000 the maximum a borough can exempt on property taxes.

Contact reporter Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.

What: Primary election

When: Today, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Where: Find your precinct place at Frontiersman.com. Enter your address in the box under “Find Your Polling Place.”

More: For more primary election information, visit elections.alaska.gov.