Students vote for president in the Mt. Edgecumbe High School mock election on Monday. They went to the “polls” after hearing presentations from students Donovan Gurule (portraying President Barack Obama) and Sam Clark (portraying Gov. Mitt Romney). (Photo by Ed Ronco/KCAW)
Mt. Edgecumbe High School opened its polls Monday afternoon for a mock presidential election (Obama 256, Romney 36, in case you’re wondering). Today it’s your turn to vote, in the most-definitely-not-a-mock election. We thought we’d pass along some info that might be helpful today.
Where do I vote in Sitka?
If you’re registered to vote in Sitka, cast your ballot at Centennial Hall. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. If you’re registered anywhere else in Alaska, you can get ballots at the airport.
What’s on the ballot?
President, Vice President, U.S. House of Representatives, state House, state Senate, judicial retentions, and two ballot propositions. You can see a sample ballot at the Division of Elections website.
What can you tell me about the candidates?
Public media in Alaska has been covering a lot of these contests for months. Below find some links to that coverage:
U.S. House
Interview with U.S. Rep. Don Young (R)
Interview with state Rep. Sharon Cissna (D)
Debate for the State, from Anchorage
Alaska Legislature
Campaign finance totals for Southeast races (as of Nov. 3)
House 34 Chamber of Commerce forum
House 34 Sitka High School forum, with Sen. Albert Kookesh (D): Story | Full audio
Sen. Bert Stedman before the Sitka Chamber of Commerce
Senate Dist. Q call-in forum – KRBD, Ketchikan: Story | Full audio
What are my friends and neighbors saying?
We let listeners offer commentaries — three minutes or so, on their opinion. We had four this election cycle, all dealing with House District 34.
Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins
Bill Thomas
Jim McGowan (in favor of Kreiss-Tomkins)
Pat Eliason (in favor of Thomas)
What about the ballot measures?
You can read them both here.
Am I registered to vote?
Good question. You can find out on this state website. But you should also know that in Alaska, even if you’re not registered by the deadline (which was way back in October) you can still cast a ballot for President and Vice President.
What are some good places for information beyond Alaska’s borders?
NPR News has tons of coverage, including these maps. You also can check in with BBC News if you’re interested in an outside perspective.
And if you really want to impress friends at a party tonight, check out RealClearPolitics.com. This site aggregates polls from across the nation for just about any race that’s been polled. The site also links to columns, articles, maps, graphics. You can even turn the toss-up states red or blue, and see how the electoral votes shake out.
Here’s one more red state/blue state map, showing past election results, from the Federal Register. Couldn’t resist.
How do I find out who won?
We’ve got you covered. Raven Radio will carry live Election Night coverage from NPR News beginning at 4 p.m. today. We’ll stay with it until 9 p.m., when we join the Alaska Public Radio Network in Anchorage. And we’ll have someone at the station in Sitka, too, monitoring both feeds and switching between them as necessary. (It’s also why we’re not carrying the Sitka Assembly tonight. We’ll have coverage of the meeting during our newscasts Wednesday morning.)
