ANCHORAGE, Alaska — After the publication of a report this week on the city’s remote voting options, Anchorage officials sought to clarify its offerings, which they say were mischaracterized in a national news story.
Among the options to vote in Anchorage’s by-mail local elections, voters can choose to cast their ballots electronically, an option the municipality has offered since 2018. In the last year, the city established a “secure document portal” that gives registered voters, no matter where they are, the ability to vote electronically with preapproval without having to email or fax their paper ballot.
Municipal Clerk Jamie Heinz, in a statement Thursday responding to a New York Times article on the city’s use of electronic voting, called the story an “egregious misrepresentation of MOA Elections.”
“The article claims a new ‘experiment’ will allow all voters to cast ballots from their smartphones. This is factually inaccurate,” Heinz said.
Anchorage’s elections have been conducted by mail since the 2018 municipal election, with ballots automatically sent to the city’s registered voters.
While some jurisdictions limit absentee ballots or electronic voting to those with extenuating circumstances — notably service members or college students with a reason to be out of town — Anchorage affords to any voter the opportunity to vote electronically, so long as they apply before Election Day and are approved by the elections team, Heinz said.
In the years since the rollout of electronic voting in 2018, an average of fewer than 200 voters have requested the accommodation during each election, Heinz said. In the latest election, a fraction of the 60,455 ballots cast — fewer than 140 — were submitted via the portal. The vast majority of ballots are returned by mail or drop box.
The voting process, Heinz said, will remain the same in April.
“There are no changes to the options for voters to cast their ballots in the upcoming 2026 Regular Municipal Election,” Heinz said in the statement.
The municipality uses an encrypted program called OmniBallot, through the company DemocracyLive, municipal election coordinator Liz Edwards said in an email Friday. DemocracyLive bills itself as the leader in providing cloud and tablet-based balloting technologies in the U.S., according to its website.
Through the portal, a voter provides a personal identifier for security for review by the elections team. With their personal identifier and a personalized identification number, voters can fill out their ballots by 8 p.m. on election night. The electronic votes are transmitted to the election center, then printed and processed alongside other returned ballots, Heinz said.
DemocracyLive, according to its website, has been used in more than 5,000 elections across 2,500 jurisdictions in 36 states.
The Assembly’s Quality Municipal Services, Ethics and Elections Committee meeting gave its “blessing” for the city to work with DemocracyLive at its meeting in September 2024, a month after hearing a presentation on the software. Code changes passed through the Anchorage Assembly in December 2024 officially allowed voting by documental portal, alongside voting by mail or fax.
At $5,900, the purchasing order for the portal fell under the monetary threshold needed for Assembly approval, Edwards said. The city will look into a grant to pay for the software for the 2026 election.
Assembly Chair Chris Constant said the municipality allows the electronic option to those “who needed an extraordinary tool to exercise their right to vote.”
In a request for comment after the city’s statement, a New York Times spokesperson said the article is “accurate and based on interviews with Anchorage government and election officials, as well as remote voting experts.”
“Our coverage fairly reflects the realities of this current digital electoral transformation, which has taken place in several parts of Alaska and other regions seeking to overcome logistical challenges and improve voter access,” spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha said in an email Friday.
Ballot packets for the 2026 election for should arrive via mail by mid-March and returned by April 7, Heinz said in a statement Thursday. On the ballot will be seats for six Assembly districts and two school board positions.
The deadline to apply to vote by secure document portal is one week before Election Day — applications received after that time will be processed subject to availability of staff. Applications can be submitted in-person, or by mail, fax or email to the Office of the Municipal Clerk.
The municipality also offers ballot tracking, electronic curing and in-person voting options.
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