Voters line up in the lobby of Anchorage’s City Hall on Monday, with most waiting 90 minutes to two hours that morning to cast their ballots at the early voting site there. Early voting in Alaska was much more popular this year than in past election years, state statistics show. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Alaskans this year made a dramatic shift from past years in their voting practices, choosing in large numbers to cast their ballots before Election Day rather than on Tuesday.
As of Sunday, 61,912 Alaskans had voted early, according to the Alaska Division of Elections statistics that did not include totals from Monday, the last day of early voting. That compares to 38,242 early voters in the 2016 general election and 19,937 early voters in the 2012 general election, according to the division’s statistics . This year’s early vote tally has surpassed even that of 2020, when voters opted for alternative ways to cast their ballots because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the division’s statistics.