DIVE PRACTICUM – Dive student Karson Winslow hands a discarded garden hose to SCUBA instructor Haleigh Damron, standing on the dock, at Crescent Harbor this afternoon. The University of Alaska Southeast Sitka Campus Dive Team is clearing trash from the harbor floor under floats 5, 6 and 7 as part of their instruction. Fourteen student divers are taking part this year. This is the fifth year the dive team has volunteered to clean up Sitka harbors. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The threat of major cutbacks to the subsistence socke [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
With the first vote on the city budget for fiscal yea [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
In the final day of play in the recreational division City League volleyball [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
Three amateur athletes from Sitka were among tens of [ ... ]
By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
A proposal to require Alaska schools to keep opioid-overdose-r [ ... ]
By YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
Alaska’s Kobuk River, which flows out of the Brooks Range above [ ... ]
Police Blotter
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
April 16
At 8:07 a.m. a woman [ ... ]
Presentation On
Medicare, SS
SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium and Cynthia Gibson, CFP®, an [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Musicians from Sitka High and Mt. Edgecumbe High scho [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Whether you enjoy scaling mountains, walking in the p [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
Two-time Alpine Adventure Run winner Chris Brenk cont [ ... ]
By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee expanded a [ ... ]
By JAMES BROOKS and
CLAIRE STREMPLE
The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development is [ ... ]
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
April 15
A protective order was issued at 1 [ ... ]
Chamber Speaker
Event Wednesday
The Chamber of Commerce speaker series will continue noon Wednesday at [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
From high costs and low availability to challenges sur [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
A number of participants at Thursday’s community me [ ... ]
By CLAIRE STREMPLE Alaska Beacon TJ Beers stood across the street from the Capitol in a nav [ ... ]
By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
When it rains hard enough in the Prince of Wales Island town of C [ ... ]
By YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
A designated wilderness area in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Fo [ ... ]
By YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
Julie Kitka, the longtime president of the Alaska Federation of Natives, [ ... ]
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
April 12
At 5:18 p.m. a caller asked for a [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Sitka Tourism Task Force reviewed a number of recomme [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Almost exactly a century ago, the engines of four modi [ ... ]
Daily Sitka Sentinel
Study: Alaska Voters Mailing Ballots Later
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Many Alaska voters are mailing absentee ballots later than a one-week deadline recommended by the U.S. Postal Service, based on an analysis of recent primary voting.
A comparison of the past three statewide primaries by The Anchorage Daily News found that the state’s Aug. 18 primary ballots did not arrive unusually late at the Alaska Division of Elections, the newspaper reported Monday.
But late ballot mailing by Alaska voters could affect the result of voting in November, when an even higher number of absentee votes are expected to be cast than the record number submitted in last month’s primary.
The Postal Service recommends a deadline of a week because ballots typically travel by first-class mail and the majority arrives between two and five days after being sent, Postal Service documents said.
More ballots arrive at the Alaska Division of Elections after the primary election day than in the three weeks before, indicating many Alaskans are mailing ballots just days before the election, according to absentee voter files from the previous three primary elections.
Mailing ballots after the recommended date increases the number of rejected ballots because state law requires them to be postmarked by Election Day.
Most postmarking takes place in Anchorage, a day or more away by mail from most of the state. Late postmarks are the second highest reason why the elections division rejects absentee ballots.
In one example, North Pole Republican Sen. John Coghill lost his recent primary race by 14 votes. There were 30 mailed votes in his district rejected by the elections division for various reasons.
Handwritten dates on ballot envelopes show some of the rejected ballots were mailed on Election Day, but had postmarks from the day after the election. The election division left those votes unopened in accordance with state law.
“I think people are going to have to be alerted that if they’re going to have to vote absentee in Fairbanks, they’re going to have to get things in a day ahead of the deadline,” Coghill said.
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20 YEARS AGO
April 2004
Photo caption: Sitka High students in the guitar music class gather in the hall before the school’s spring concert. The concert was dedicated to music instructor Brad Howey, who taught more than 1,000 Sitka High students from 1993 to 2004. From left are Kristina Bidwell, Rachel Ulrich, Mitch Rusk, Nicholas Mitchell, Eris Weis and Joey Metz.
50 YEARS AGO
April 1974
The Fair Deal Association of Sealaska shareholders selected Nelson Frank as their candidate for the Sealaska Board of Directors at the ANB Hall Thursday.