Tuesday’s election results promise at least seven new faces in Legislature<\/a><\/p>\n Empire Analysis: Election results present mixed messages<\/a><\/p>\n
Juneau voters might disagree about politics, but on Tuesday, they seemed to agree about one thing: Turnout at this year\u2019s statewide primary stunk.<\/p>\n
By 10 p.m., incomplete official figures from the Alaska Division of Elections indicated as few as 1 in 5 Juneau voters participated in the election.<\/p>\n
Low turnout or not, the results on the statewide level appear clear: Democrat Steve Lindbeck will face Republican Don Young and Libertarian Jim McDermott for U.S. House in November. For the U.S. Senate, Lisa Murkowski will represent the Republicans and Cean Stevens the Libertarians. Ray Metcalfe appeared to be the Democratic nominee in early voting.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s tally will rise as mailed and questioned ballots are counted, but even with those late arrivals, this year\u2019s turnout will go into the books as one of the lowest \u2014 if not the lowest \u2014 since the century began.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a little quieter this year,\u201d said Andrea Watts, the election chairperson for the Lynn Canal precinct, which votes at the Juneau Ferry Terminal.<\/p>\n
Lynn Canal is the most politically active precinct in Juneau: Two years ago, 45.38 percent of its registered voters cast ballots at the polls, the most of any precinct in the capital borough. Two years before that, turnout was 34.51 percent \u2014 again, the highest in Juneau.<\/p>\n
By 6 p.m., counters on the precinct\u2019s voting machines showed only 205 ballots cast in person \u2014 16.4 percent of the area\u2019s 1,250 registered voters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re usually 30 (percent), and now we\u2019re barely 10 (percent),\u201d Watts said before calculating the turnout.<\/p>\n
Across town at the Douglas Public Library, Stuart Sliter called Tuesday\u2019s turnout \u201cthe lowest I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sliter (pronounced sly-turr) has been chairwoman of the Douglas precinct for the past 20 years and has worked in various positions for the Division of Elections since 1984.<\/p>\n
At 3:16 p.m., the library\u2019s voting machine had registered 123 in-person votes \u2014 about 7.3 percent of the precinct\u2019s registered voters.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople just don\u2019t seem to care,\u201d Sliter said.<\/p>\n
With no ballot measures and all of Juneau\u2019s statehouse seats uncontested in the primary (Cathy Mu\u00f1oz and Justin Parish will face each other in November\u2019s general election), statewide U.S. House and U.S. Senate races offered the only options for competition on Juneau ballots.<\/p>\n
Two years ago, Ballot Measure 1 \u2014 a question about whether or not to change Alaska\u2019s oil taxes \u2014 drew tens of millions of dollars in campaign spending. That, in turn, brought voters to the polls both for and against the measure.<\/p>\n
With nothing like that on this year\u2019s ballot, \u201cHere, there\u2019s nothing very exciting,\u201d Sliter said.<\/p>\n
With no significant electoral advertising, there was less of a push to vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people said they haven\u2019t seen much publicity,\u201d said Mark Johnson, deputy precinct chairman for North Douglas.<\/p>\n
His precinct was voting at Juneau\u2019s downtown fire station. At 1:10 p.m., just 82 people had cast votes in person, a turnout of 5.4 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all lonely down here,\u201d offered one of Johnson\u2019s fellow election workers, joking about the low turnout.<\/p>\n
Earlier this summer, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump suggested that American elections could be rigged this fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cNov. 8, we\u2019d better be careful, because that election is going to be rigged,\u201d he said at an Aug. 1 rally in Columbus, Ohio. \u201cPeople are going to walk in and they\u2019re going to vote 10 times, maybe, who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n
No Juneau voters stepped forward to say that his thoughts were a likely deterrent, but many did say they were disgusted with their choices nationally and statewide.<\/p>\n
Melanie Zahasky, leaving the Auke Bay polling station, offered a simple explanation for Tuesday\u2019s low turnout.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people are lazy and they don\u2019t think it\u2019ll make a difference,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She added that she doesn\u2019t believe that, which is why she took the time to vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we don\u2019t get out and vote, then it won\u2019t make a difference,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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