Cast a ballot and wait for the plane. In Alaska, a grace period for ballots is seen as a necessity

A sign hangs outside the director's office of the Alaska Division of Elections, Thursday, March 19. 2026, in Juneau, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer) 2026-03-22T11:41:04Z JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The tiny Alaska Native village of Beaver is about 40 minutes — by plane — from the nearest city. Its roughly 50 residents rely on weekday flights for mail and many of their basic supplies, from groceries to Amazon deliveries of everyday household items. Air service plays an outsize role in the nation’s most expansive state, where most communities rely on flights for year-round access. Planes also play a critical role in elections, getting voting materials and ballots to and from rural precincts such as Beaver and in delivering ballots for thousands of Alaskans who vote by mail — some in places where in-person voting is not available. The vast distances and relative isolation of so many communities make Alaska unique and are why its residents have a significant interest in arguments taking place Monday before the U.S. Supreme Court. Many here worry that a case from Mississippi challenging whether ballots received after Election Day can be counted in federal elections could end Alaska’s practice of accepting late-arriving ballots. Alaska counts ballots if they are postmarked by Election Day and received within 10 days, or 15 days for overseas voters in general elections. “These processes have been in place for a long time just to ensure that our ballots are counted,” said Rhonda Pitka, a poll worker and first chief in Beaver, which sits along the Yukon River 110 miles (177 kilometers) north of Fairbanks. If the court decides ballots in all states must be received by Election Day, she said, “They’ll be disenfranchising thousands of people — thousands of people in these rural communities. It’s just basically saying that their votes don’t count, and that’s a real shame.” Some ballots already arrive late Alaska is one of 14 states that allow all mailed ballots postmarked by Elec

原文链接: AP News