Soon, going to the polls in October may be a thing of the past for many Juneau voters.<\/p>\n
Future municipal elections in the capital city may be primarily vote-by-mail affairs with the 2020 election serving as a template.<\/p>\n
On Monday night, the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly Human Resources Committee passed a motion asking the city clerk to flesh out thoughts around a hybrid election for the Oct. 6, 2021, municipal election. They declined to entertain a motion directing the clerk’s office to look beyond the next election. Since the Assembly doesn’t keep a standing elections committee, the Human Resources Committee became the starting point for the question.<\/p>\n
In late February or early March, the assembly’s Committee of the Whole will hear the results of the research and consider the possibilities for the upcoming election.<\/p>\n
Why now?<\/strong><\/p>\n City Clerk Beth McEwen asked the committee to weigh in with direction on the preferred process for future elections, noting that planning for the mayoral election slated for fall needs to begin by April.<\/p>\n McEwen explained that a mail process elongates the election process, requiring earlier filing and taking longer to certify because Juneau doesn’t have equipment capable of locally counting votes cast by mail.<\/p>\n She also said that the assembly had mentioned an interest in pursuing this track based on the successful 2020 municipal election.<\/p>\n “In October 2020, our CBJ Regular Municipal Election was held in partnership with the Municipality of Anchorage (MOA) as a By Mail Election due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” McEwan said in a memo to the committee.<\/p>\n