Wasilla police prepared for busy day

Frontiersman

WASILLA — The city has only two polling places for today’s general election and local cops intend to keep an eye on both.

“We’re staffing up extra as a result of Election Day,” Wasilla Police Chief Angella Long said.

It’s something the department does most years. Officers keep an eye on polls at both the Wasilla Senior Center and Wasilla City Hall. But this election is, to say the least, different, Long said.

“People seem pretty passionate about this election,” she said.

And the chief was noticeably tight-lipped about how the department will participate in the security measures as they relate to the subject of that excitement.

GOP vice presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was due, as of press time, to arrive in Wasilla early this morning to cast her vote at city hall. Early reports from local supporters indicate that her presence in downtown will generate a crowd.

“She’s going to come to a polling place and do her sacred duty,” Long said.

And yes, Wasilla police will be around. Other than that, Long had little to say on the topic of the local security measures being taken surrounding Palin.

Generally during an election, the department will keep an eye out to make sure election laws are enforced, Long said. Those laws prohibit campaigning and politicking within 200 feet of a polling place.

“We want to make sure that the things that are going on outside the polling places are as they should be,” Long said. “You always get somebody that will pull up and will forget that they have a political bumper sticker on their car.”

Those folks have to move or, alternately, an election staffer will sometimes tape a piece of paper over the sticker in question.

“We generally don’t have any problems,” Long said, adding that “we want to make sure that no voters are disenfranchised.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.