Elections go smoothly in Nome and region, Wales polls opened late

Last Tuesday, voters in Nome and the Bering Strait region turned out for election day. Polls opened at 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. in Nome and all villages, except for Wales, where polls opened late. 

Alaska’s Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher came to Nome, monitoring the elections from the Division of Election office in the Sitnasuak building.

“All polls are open except for Wales, where we are still attempting to get in contact with the City Clerk to open the polls,” Beecher wrote in an email to the Nugget around 2 p.m. on election day.

While volunteer election workers came to Nome in case of a situation like this, bad weather made it impossible to travel to Wales.

“The flights to Wales have been canceled due to weather, so no flights today, unfortunately. We are working with Kawerak to try to find someone in Wales to open the polls, said Beecher.

Clarissa Eide, a tribal affairs specialist at Kawerak, worked with Beecher to find someone to open the polls in Wales. The polls opened at 4 p.m. and closed on schedule at 8 p.m.

Kawerak offered rides to the polls in Nome, partnering with Norton Sound Health Corporation clinics to drive people to the polls in the villages. Kawerak also offered a prize of 50 stadium chairs to the community with the highest percentage voter turnout.

Kawerak had around four or five drivers in Nome, according to Ken Waterman, who works for the Kawerak transportation department. Waterman was one of the drivers, using a Kawerak truck. Around 5 p.m., he said that the day had been “really slow,” and that he had yet to get a call to pick someone up, but that vans had been driving people.

“Maybe they’re giving all the calls to them, and I get the ones that they can’t get, right?” said Waterman.

He said that he had been a decided but reluctant voter.

“I really didn’t want to vote, but since I was doing this [driving], I did vote,” Waterman said. His biggest issue was the economy. “Gotta have a job,” he said, laughing slightly.

Most villages have reported things to be business as usual on election day. Other than Wales, all the locations that responded to the Nugget’s calls opened on time at 8 a.m. and received their materials in advance. 

As of 3 p.m. on Tuesday Brevig Mission reported a steady turnout with 65 so far of the 232 registered voters.

In Elim around the same time there were a reported 80 voters of 199 registered, but the flow of people was slowing down as the day went on.

Little Diomede reported 7 voters by 3:30 p.m. of 44 registered.

Shaktoolik said they’ve been busy this year, with over 50 voters by 4 p.m. of 158 registered.

Of the 60 people who stopped by in Stebbins by 4 p.m. five registered to vote that day, according to Election Official Shelly Pete.

Teller reported about 25 voters had stopped by the bingo hall by 4 p.m. 

In Nome, Maria Trigg-Crumbley said she was originally an undecided voter for the presidential election, but she knew who she wanted in the local elections. She said human rights, and specifically women’s rights, helped her decide who to vote for.

“We live at one of the edges of the world. They think they’re including us, which is cool, but I wanted to make sure that I voted for our local people,” said Trigg-Crumbley.

Jenny Diggs said she was very satisfied with her vote, and that she had never been undecided.

Asked what the number one issue for her was, she responded: “Just my belief about what democracy should be. But yeah, women’s rights is big up there.”

In the evening, an ambulance parked outside Old St. Joe’s. No one was hurt. It was there because the EMTs were inside voting.

In Nome, 928 voters out of 2735 registered voters cast their ballots.