Michelle Sparck, director of Get Out The Native Vote, stands by her business’ booth on Saturday at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention in Anchorage. Sparck, wearing a button identifying her as a Cup’ik voter, is urging Alaska Natives to be more diligent about voting in both state and local elections. In addition to her voter-education work, Sparck has a beauty-products business, ArXotica, that she and her sisters founded. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Four decades ago, in days before the internet and automatic voter registration, Alaska Natives turned out to vote at high levels.
That participation has eroded badly, a situation that should be reversed, said Michelle Sparck, director of an Alaska nonpartisan organization called Get Out The Native Vote .
Alaska Natives are not fully realizing their power if they do not vote, she said.
“They say that anytime you look at a white male in this country, you know they’re a voter. We should be in that kind of category,” Sparck said in a presentation Friday at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention in Anchorage.