Alaska election officials will reroute absentee-in-person ballots from the state’s western election region to Anchorage for the October and November elections after mail delays caused about 75 votes to miss the August primary count. The Division of Elections announced the temporary change September 16, saying uncertainty in rural mail delivery left ballots arriving after the August 31 certification.

The affected ballots came from seven communities: King Cove, Nikolski, Igiugig, Naknek, Quinhagak, Pitka’s Point and Kotzebue. Kotzebue accounted for 28 of the 75, while Igiugig accounted for 21. Under the new procedure, return mail from Region IV absentee-in-person sites will go to the Region II office in Anchorage for both the October 6 Regional Educational Attendance Area election and the November 3 general election.

The change addresses a specific feature of Alaska voting. Early ballots are verified where they are cast and are not sent elsewhere for eligibility review. Absentee-in-person ballots, by contrast, are sealed in affidavit envelopes and mailed to a regional office, where staff and a bipartisan review board confirm eligibility before opening and counting them. The division’s 2026 primary media guide explains that absentee-in-person and by-mail ballots follow the same regional review process.

The 75 ballots were part of a broader primary-election rejection problem. About 3.4% of Alaska absentee ballots were disqualified, roughly one in 30, according to Division data reviewed by the Alaska Beacon. The report found 169 ballots rejected because they were postmarked after Election Day and 110 more recorded as arriving too late. The latter number may not capture every delayed ballot because some arrived only after certification.

State rules leave little room to repair a timing or paperwork problem after a ballot reaches election officials. The Division’s primary guide says mailed ballots had to be postmarked by August 18 and received within the statutory ten-day window. It also says Alaska has no general “notice-and-cure” process allowing voters to fix a missing witness signature or other defect after receipt. A 2025 Superior Court ruling upheld that system, finding the absence of a cure process did not violate due process.

The practical distinction matters for voters in remote communities. Casting an absentee-in-person ballot before Election Day does not mean the ballot has completed its administrative journey; it still must reach the reviewing office on time. Voters using an early-voting location instead have eligibility checked immediately, while voters returning a mailed ballot remain responsible for the postmark and delivery deadlines described by the division.

Rerouting Region IV mail to Anchorage is an operational response, not a change to Alaska’s statutory deadlines or eligibility rules. The division says it has notified the voters whose primary ballots were affected. Whether the new route prevents similar losses will be measurable after the October school-board election and the November general election, when rural mail volumes and statewide turnout will again test the system.