Rural Nunapitchuk precinct fails to open on time for Alaska's primary, voting advocates say

Iris Samuels, Anchorage Daily News on Aug 18, 2026

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The polling place in Nunapitchuk, a village in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, was not open as of Tuesday afternoon, hours after primary voting was meant to begin across Alaska, according to an Alaska Native voting organization.

It was not immediately clear whether the village’s 343 registered voters would have an opportunity to cast their ballots.

Ivalu Blanchett, a volunteer with Get Out the Native Vote who lives in Anchorage, was scheduled to fly to Nunapitchuk to assist elders and disabled people with voting on Tuesday, but her flight was canceled due to weather, she said.

When she contacted her aunt, who lives in Nunapitchuk, her aunt informed her that the polling location was not staffed or open because “no election workers had shown up,” Blanchett told the Daily News.

Blanchett said she had been trying to reach the Alaska Division of Elections to ensure the polling place can open before the end of the day.

The Alaska Division of Elections did not immediately respond to questions.

Michelle Sparck, who leads Get Out the Native Vote, said she had reached out to contacts in the village to see if anyone could facilitate voting Tuesday afternoon.

Alaska Native groups warned on Monday that rural polling places were not adequately staffed, calling on the Division of Elections to do more to ensure that voting can take place.

It is not the first time that voting locations in rural Alaska Native villages have failed to open for an election. In the 2024 August primary, two village polling places failed to open. In the 2024 November election, several village polling places failed to open until late in the afternoon. The same thing happened in 2022.

Alaska lawmakers sought to improve voting access for rural residents this year by passing expansive legislation that would have, among other things, required the Division of Elections to hire a rural voting coordinator. Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed the legislation in April, saying the division did not have time to implement the changes ahead of this year’s election.

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