In the scattered villages of Kodiak Island off the southwest coast of Alaska, mail arrives by plane. Sending ballots to the center of the archipelago takes at least two days – if frequent storms in the area do not affect air traffic.
It’s a common problem throughout Alaska. And that’s a key reason why the state allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted for up to 10 days afterward, a critical relief for voters in remote communities disconnected from the state’s highway system and .
That’s why Alaskans across the political spectrum are sounding the alarm about the pending Supreme Court ruling. The majority of justices seemed to derive from the late vote count a ruling that would stand. That has the potential to disenfranchise hundreds of voters in the remote villages of Kodiak and thousands more in remote parts of The Last Frontier — and upend Alaska’s electoral process in a state that could determine control of the Senate.
“This is important in a place like Kodiak, because absentee voting here is not convenient,” said Jared Griffin, mayor of Kodiak Island Borough, an independent. “It will really hurt voters in rural, remote areas.”
The ban on late voting could have a major impact on Alaska Natives, many of whom live in rural villages that received and returned ballots. It’s a scenario that’s raised bipartisan concerns about depressed voter turnout in the hotly contested Senate race between former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola and Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. The competition could determine control of the room.
Democrats, in particular, are being upset — accusing Republicans of pushing changes that could disenfranchise members of a significant Democratic-leaning voting bloc.
“It would be a disaster. It would be despicable,” Eric Croft, chairman of the Alaska Democratic Party, said of the potential impact on rural and indigenous voters. “That would hurt participation in rural Alaska. And Mary Peltola is very strong in her native community as well as in the community that she comes from. So I think that would hurt her.”
‘Injury due to blunt force’
President Donald Trump won Alaska by 13 points in 2024. But both sides see a competitive Senate race shaping up.
Peltola holds a narrow advantage over Sullivan in several public polls examining the race so far, leading the Republican by 5 percentage points since mid-March. National Democrats see Peltola as a major recruiting win and have spent more than $3 million to boost her campaign, according to the ad tracking company AdImpact.
Republicans are also pouring money into the state, a sign that they don’t see Sullivan as a lock. The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC affiliated with Majority Leader John Thune, pledged this week to pump $15 million into the race — a staggering amount for a state of 740,000 people.
At the core of Peltola’s — and possibly the Senate’s — hopes of flipping the state are gaining ground in the Bush region, the term Alaskans use to refer to a vast swath of isolated villages from the Aleutian Islands to the North Slope, cut off from the state’s road system and containing much of the state’s native communities.
Alaska Natives make up about 20% of the state’s electorate and are a powerful force in state politics. They helped push Peltola, who goes by Yup’ik and has deep roots in the Bethel area, to her 2022 special election to serve out the remainder of the late Rep. Don Young’s term in the House. In that year’s November election, Peltola swept most of the predominantly indigenous areas, according to an electoral poll. They also backed GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski against right-wing challengers; Sullivan also has ties to the community.
Many Alaska Natives rely on mail voting, and activists see it as a vital tool in rural areas where voter turnout is high. That includes the area Peltola represents in the state House of Representatives.
Ballots arrived late from across the state where more than four-fifths of communities were cut off from the main road system. But they come from rural and indigenous communities arriving more slowly than those from predominantly urban and non-indigenous areas, according to a brief that a group of indigenous organizations filed with the Supreme Court. In House District 38, which Peltola represents, nearly four-fifths of all absentee ballots arrived after Election Day.
No late ballots will be counted if the Supreme Court strikes down Mississippi’s five-business-day extension, in a case brought by the Republican National Committee and backed by the Trump administration.
“They want to have their ballots in hand on election day [so] You know who won that night. It’s been difficult,” said Democratic state Rep. Maxine Dibert, an Alaska Native who represents a district in and around Fairbanks, in the rural heart of the state. “There have been barriers to voting.”
The ruling, which could come this summer, could upend election administration in Alaska just two months before the state’s primary — a worst-case scenario that prompted the state’s Republican attorney general, Stephen Cox, to make the final ruling. While Cox did not take sides in the case, he emphasized the “unique challenges” Alaskans face voting in a state where volatile weather can shut down mail services and polling places are sometimes short-staffed to stay open.
Peltola’s campaign said in a statement that she will work to ensure “Alaskans can make their voices heard” in November.
“Mary believes that everyone eligible to vote should have access to the ballot box, and that one-size-fits-all rules from DC rarely work for large rural states like Alaska,” said campaign spokesman Harry Child. “Whether by road, plane or boat, we will reach Alaskans where they are and ensure they can participate in our safe and secure elections.”
Alaska leaders are also preparing for the less likely passage of the SAVE America Act, a series of strict voting regulations being pushed by Trump and his allies that state officials and local activists warn could further disenfranchise indigenous and rural people. The bill stalled in the Senate partly due to opposition from Alaska’s senior senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, although Sullivan supported it.
“We are going through a lot of extreme trauma with this multi-pronged effort to not meet voters where we are,” said Michelle Sparck, who runs Get Out the Native Vote, a nonpartisan group dedicated to improving Native voter turnout.
Shares of the Senate
Murkowski, who has drawn strong Native support in her campaigns and is backing Sullivan in her re-election bid against her former ally Peltola, has criticized her party’s twin efforts to limit mail-in voting and tighten identification requirements. And she warned the Supreme Court ruling eliminating grace periods for mail ballots would hit her state harder than any other.
“I have a state that relies heavily on voting by mail,” she told POLITICO, “and we want to continue that.”
Sullivan has his own relationship with the indigenous community. He won the support of several union leaders in their personal capacity. His wife, Julie Fate Sullivan, was Koyukon Athabascan and came from an influential family.
A spokesperson for Sullivan said the senator believes mail ballots cast before or on Election Day — even if they are received afterward — should be counted.
“Senator Sullivan has a record dating back to his time as Alaska’s Attorney General of protecting voting rights for Alaskans, especially in rural and Alaska Native communities. He believes that every qualified vote before or on Election Day should be counted,” Sullivan spokeswoman Amanda Coyne said in a statement. “He also applauded Alaska Attorney General Stephen Cox for filing an amicus brief in this case, highlighting Alaska’s unique geography and challenges.”
Art Hackney, a veteran Republican operative who runs an outside group backing Sullivan’s reelection effort, said voters will adjust to potentially having to mail their ballots sooner. And he thinks the impact on the Senate race will be negligible.
“It’s just a matter of figuring out how to deal with it,” Hackney said. “I think you can flip a coin by percentage – some this way, some that way. Both will fight to win [Native and rural] votes.”
But Democrats, who see Alaska as a possible linchpin for their hopes of retaking the Senate, say the restrictions could hurt Peltola on her home turf — potentially hampering their broader midterm election strategy.
They argue that Alaska has taken steps to tighten voting rules, pointing out that lawmakers were sent to Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy last month to update voter rolls, create a ballot tracking system and establish a ballot processing process.
“These efforts do one thing and one thing only: disenfranchise people who live in rural areas of Alaska,” said Jim Lottsfeldt, a longtime state Democratic strategist who is not involved in the Senate race. “You could argue that these things hurt Peltola, because as the first Native woman elected to statewide office, she clearly has the support of Alaska Natives. That’s the core constituency.”