REGISTER TO VOTE: Who, How, When, and Where? Information on Spanish Language Assistance by Felix Rivera
Foto/Photo: Archive
Before you can vote, you must register. There are multiple ways to do this. The information below is everything you need to know about registering to vote.
Who can register to vote? In order to register to vote in Alaska, you must:
Be a United States citizen. This means that green card or visa holders are not eligible to vote.
Be an Alaskan resident. What does this mean exactly? A resident is anyone who lives in Alaska and intends to remain indefinitely and make a home here. There is no time requirement to meet, unlike, for example, qualifying for the Permanent Fund Dividend.
Be at least 18 years old. There is an important exception to this qualification. If you are within 90 days of your 18th birthday you can register to vote, meaning someone who has a birthday on July 30 can register to vote as early as April 30.
Not be a convicted felon. In rare instances, a judge may restore voting rights of felons.
Not be registered to vote in another state. If you are registered to vote in another state, you must be willing to cancel your registration in the other state. There is a box on the voter registration form that, when checked, gives the State of Alaska Division of Elec- tions authority to reach out to your former state of residence and cancel that registration on your behalf.
When can you register yourself? In order to be eligible to vote in an upcoming election, you must register to vote within 30 days of the election. As an example, for the Primary and General elections coming up, the deadline to register to vote is July 17 for the August 16 Primary and October 9 for the November 8 General.
Where can you register? There are a few ways to actually regis- ter to vote. You can do it online at voter- registration.alaska.gov. Or you can print
an application online at www.elections. alaska.gov (click on the “Voter Regis- tration Information” tab on the left hand side, click on “Voter Registration,” and then click on “Voter Registration Appli- cation”), sign it, and mail it in. Or you can go in person to the various Division of Elections or Division of Motor Vehi- cle Offices around the state. For those living in the three largest cities in Alaska, the address and contact information for the Division of Elections office is:
ANCHORAGE: 2525 Gambell Street, Suite 100, Anchorage, AK 99503 / 907 522 8683
FAIRBANKS: 675 7th Avenue, Suite H3, Fairbanks, AK 99701 / 907 451 2835
JUNEAU: 9109 Mendenhall Mall Road, Suite 3, Juneau, AK 99801 / 907 465 3021
What do I need for the registration process? Whichever route you decide, you will need one of the following pieces of infor- mation (if you mail in the application, you
will need to attach a photocopy of one of the forms of identification listed below):
Current and valid photo ID, can be something as simple as a university ID that has your picture.
Driver’s license
Passport
State identification card
Birth certificate
Once your application has been processed by the Division of Elections, they will mail you a voter registration card. That process takes up to four weeks. The card will have the information you need on where to vote, the next, and most important, part to the voting process.
About Language Assistance The Division of Elections provides lan- guage assistance if more than five percent of the eligible voters of a given population speaks limited English. According to the census and the information gathered by the Division of Elections across Alaska, Span- ish is among these languages. Therefore, information on the registration to vote is provided in Spanish in their website: www.elections.alaska.gov/la_span.php
