This year’s October election could see more Kenai Peninsula Borough residents casting votes from their kitchen tables. An ordinance requiring borough elections be held by mail is up for introduction at Tuesday’s assembly meeting. Assembly member Bill Smith sponsored the ordinance, which proposes that instating vote-by-mail precincts borough-wide would be more efficient, convenient, save money and could increase voter turn out. “We’re hoping that we’ll get some good results if we go to vote by mail and make it easier for people and have better voter turn out,” Smith said.
The ordinance calls for ballots to be mailed to each registered voter in the precinct 15 days before the election. Ballots must be postmarked on or before midnight of Election Day and received by the following Tuesday. Return envelopes addressed to the borough clerk’s office will be provided. The ordinance also allows for ballots to be deposited at a designated deposit site. If the assembly passes the ordinance as is, precinct polling places would be eliminated. However, voters would still be able to vote in person at absentee voting sites.
Absentee voters can apply and vote in person at the borough clerk’s office at the George A. Navarre Administration Building in Soldotna, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Annex office in Homer or the nearest city clerk’s office beginning 15 days before Election Day. Of the 28 precincts within the borough, six are absentee-by-mail only and four of those have absentee voting stations on Election Day.
Current absentee-by-mail return envelopes have prepaid postage.
Full Article: Voting from home | Peninsula Clarion.