Why don’t more Alaskans vote?

Had I been in an office pool for the Alaska statewide primary, I would not have done very well.

It was at Tuesday’s other landmark civic event in the Valley, the ribbon-cuttings at the new Iditarod and Dena’ina Elementary Schools, that I realized my bracket would likely have been headed for shambles.

At the early ceremony at Iditarod, elected borough officials, as well as state officials, including the soon-to-be-ousted legislator Jim Colver, proudly celebrated the opening of the school, which was part of a $214 million bond approved by voters in 2011.

That afternoon, I found myself at Dena’ina, which wasn’t just a new building, but a new school in concept altogether. There, I spoke with borough manager John Moosey, who said he’d only been on the job about a month when the proposal to put the schools measure on the ballot came up. It was news to me to hear it had been paired with another $64 million bond to pay for road improvements.

Somehow, in this valley where arch conservatism and anti-taxation rule the political sphere, both spending measures passed.

Moosey pointed out that the 20-year school bond did not raise mill rates on property owners, but still, anywhere I’ve been, it’s like pulling teeth just to get voters to pass an override to cover the cost of P.E. classes and scorpion removal.

“I would not have bet a buck this stuff would have passed,” said Moosey, who came to the valley from Minnesota. “It might just be a certain point in time this was going to work.”

That’s when it dawned on me that in Alaska, in general, and in the Mat-Su, particularly — no one votes.

In such a landscape, a motivated special interest group — such as parents of school-age children — can stuff the ballot boxes and win. Parents elsewhere try to do the same, but more times than not, their voice is swallowed up whole by the ‘no new taxes’ brigade.

Driving back from Dena’ina, I drove past sitting Wasilla City Council member David Wilson and his team of helpers waving campaign signs joyously in front of Newcomb Park. That got me thinking back to last Thursday’s debate in Palmer presented by AARP Alaska. Wilson was the last to clear out, so the last he was told the door at the Mat-Su Senior Services would lock behind him. What took him so long was having to pack up his cart of swag, swag that included bottled water labeled with his campaign logo — and let me tell you, no water refreshes like David Wilson water.

And while there weren’t many votes to be gained in person that night, it showed that Wilson had been working the ground game brilliantly.

I had Gattis in my bracket under the logic that incumbent equals the higher seed.

But seeing Wilson himself waving the placard and smiling at passing cars on election day, I knew he had reached out to enough people personally, and my bracket was soon to be busted.

Only 15.44 percent of registered Alaskans voted in Tuesday’s primary, and in the Valley, it was even lower. In the Wilson-Gattis Senate D race, 3,123 out of a registered 25,512 — or 12.2 percent — voted with Wilson carrying 1,606 to Gattis’ 1,458.

I probably should have been clued in to the effect low voter turnout could have after Thursday’s debate, when speaking with Senate F Republican candidate Adam Crum.

Crum was trying to churn out the vote amongst his fellow millennials in his bid to topple frontrunner and sitting legislator Shelley Hughes. But he went into Tuesday dubious about his chances because all signs pointed to a 19 percent turnout, a la 2012, and not a 31 percent turnout witnessed in 2014.

If the halcyon days of voter turnout yield a 31 percent turnout, that’s pretty sad, and yet as I was driving in from Anchorage Monday morning, I saw people waving Crum signs atop overpasses. Back in town, his people were out with as much gusto on street corners as Wilson’s.

As a result, Crum, a newcomer to politics, probably over-performed, getting 41.5 percent of the vote in an election that saw 14.9 percent of registered voters turn up. Had ultra-conservative Steve St. Clair, who wound up with 10.42 percent of the vote, not been in the field, it might have come down to a coin toss between Crum and Hughes.

But why don’t Alaskans vote very much?

In the six weeks I’ve been here, I’ve been amazed by how informed and invested people are in the political scene. Even here at Frontiersman offices in Wasilla, there’s a studio where the very popular Tom Anderson and Amy Demboski shows broadcast Alaska-themed political talk with enough knowledge and passion to make you think local politics were as popular as the NFL.

On top of that, Radio-Free Palmer routinely broadcasts public meetings.

So why don’t Alaskans vote?

“If the state begins to charge for its services (Department of Transportation, etc.), and there’s some sales tax or income tax, I think it’ll be hard-pressed for citizens to say they’ll vote for one more bond,” Moosey said.

And that’s it. It’s the only answer left: Alaskans don’t vote because they don’t pay taxes.

It creates a certain irony, even a Catch-22, that progressive measures such as school and infrastructure improvements can pass scot-free, debts be damned, but the moment the state starts taxing and bringing in revenue, the people will suddenly get some skin in the game. They will start voting and voting against new taxes and against new public investments.

A big borough election is just around the corner on Oct. 4 with municipal and borough candidates up for seats and some key ballot initiatives, headlined by the question of legalizing commercial marijuana and a $22 million proposal for parks and recreational capital improvements.

This should make for a very interesting night with all eyes on the borough, not only in terms of how it votes, but how many vote.