Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

Considering the high interest in the voter turnout, I think it would be

wise to make sure you are reporting a complete picture. You report that

41% of registered voters (982 out of 2,409) cast a ballot. This may be

technically correct, but I’d say misleading. Am I the only one who has

noticed that the number of registered voters seems way high? The 2020

census estimates that there are only 1,876 people of voting age living

in the borough. Obviously the people who keep the voter list are, for

whatever reason, not doing too well at removing people who have died or

moved out of the area. If you are trying to rate public involvement, try

figuring it this way: 982 ballots cast, plus the 89 that were yet to be

counted by press time is 1,071. 1,876 people are of voting age, but

there are some people with legitimate reasons for not being a voter at

all (perhaps advanced age or disability makes it difficult to keep up

with the research required), or who wanted to vote but were prevented by

unexpected circumstances. That could account for, conservatively, 100

excused people, no? That leaves a base of 1,776. So I’d say the

percentage of potential voters who made the effort to vote was more like

60%. Not perfect, but better than 41%.

Jim Green