Anchorage voters can request new ballots if they haven’t received theirs in the mail

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - By now, Anchorage voters should have received their ballot in the mail for the April 5 municipal election. The city mailed out 210,000 ballots on March 15.

If people were expecting a ballot but didn’t get one, there are a few things they can do, according to Deputy Municipal Clerk Jamie Heinz, including calling the Voter Hotline at 243-VOTE.

“If voters haven’t received their ballots in the mail yet, feel free to call us and ask for a replacement ballot at this point,” Heinz said. “Or they can go to a vote center starting on Monday. Monday is Seward’s Day, it’s a municipal holiday, but we are open.”

Heinz said Tuesday, March 29 is the last day voters can request a new ballot in the mail, otherwise vote centers will be open every day from Monday, March 29 until 8 p.m. on April 5, election day. The city’s election website contains a complete list of locations and hours.

If a voter receives a ballot in the mail that isn’t theirs, election officials ask that it be returned, instead of throwing it away.

“It would be great if they could ‘return to sender’ and put it back in the mail or ‘no longer at this address’ and put it in a secure drop box,” Heinz said.

She said the city has received about 9,000 ballots marked as “undeliverable” so far. The ballots are set aside until after the election is certified and then sent to the state to begin the process of updating the mailing list they share.

Heinz said people who are interested in seeing when their ballot was mailed, received at the election center, or processed can register for BallotTrax. She said the system will also notify people if there’s a problem so they can correct it as soon as possible and make sure their vote counts.

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