Increasing voter turnout has been a hot topic in Alaska this year, especially in Indigenous rural communities.
One organization encouraging voter turnout is the Mobilization Center, a nonprofit working group encouraging voting in this year’s state and federal elections. Brittani Robbins, Dorothy Shockley, and Alicia Garcia are all Rural and Indigenous Outreach Specialists with the Mobilization Center. They sat down with KYUK on Oct. 30 to talk about their efforts in Bethel and throughout the state.
Read a transcript of the conversation below. It’s been lightly edited for clarity and flow and may contain transcription errors.
KYUK (Sage Smiley): Thank you all so much for joining me today. Can we just go around the table and have everybody introduce themselves and what you're here doing?
Brittani Robbins: Sure? Hi. My name is Brittani Robbins. I am with the Mobilization Center, Rural and Indigenous Outreach, and we're a working group of nonprofits. There's Native Movement, Mother Kuskokwim, the Alaska Center, First Alaskans Institute, Native Peoples Action, and many more, a lot of working parts. And we are here in Bethel. This is our fourth community where we are out talking about making sure that you have a plan to vote.
Racquel Slim: Hi, waqaa, wingaa Kakgailnguq, my name is Racquel Slim, and I am here with the Native Vote movement, and I'm just informing everyone here that I should go to the polls by [Nov.] 5, grab a partner, grab someone you know, and come vote.
Alicia Garcia: Uvlaalluataq haluu atiġa Inupiaqtun Iñuŋŋuaq. Aitgaa neloŋmutun Alicia Garcia. I'm a Rural and Indigenous Outreach Specialist with the Mobilization Center partnering beside Brittani Robbins and another special guest. Kiitaa, get out the Native vote, taikuu!
Dorothy Shockley: Good morning. This is Dorothy Shockley. I am Upper Koyukon Diné from the Yukon River. I'm so happy to be here in Bethel, we're here just to increase the turnout in voting. You know, 2022 was pretty low, so we're just here to engage people and get them out to the polls. Thank you.
KYUK: Thank you all. So what are the most important things you feel like you want people to know about voting? As you said, there's been some low turnout in this region in the past. But what are you emphasizing when you're meeting people around Bethel?
Robbins: We really want to focus on that early vote, making sure your ballot gets counted. Early voting began on [Oct.] 21 and you can vote now in Bethel at the [Orutsararmiut Native Council building], and so we just want to really encourage that early vote, and bringing someone with you, and making sure your vote gets counted.
Shockley: Well, like I said, we want to increase our voter turnout. In 2022, the turnout in the Bethel area House District 38 was 34%, and in the primary in August it was 13.15%, so pretty low. Only 1,436 people turned out out of 10,922 in August. So it's just really important. You know, our vote is our voice, and we just want to make sure that you get out and vote, and your vote really does matter.
KYUK: What do you tell people when they may say, ‘Well, I don't feel like my vote matters. Why should I vote? What does voting early do? Like, how does that benefit me at all?’
Shockley: Well, you know, one of our values as Indigenous people is we just don't do things for ourselves. We do things for our family, for our community. So if you feel like your vote doesn't matter, then do it for your community and for the region.
KYUK: How about if people are like, ‘Well, I don't want to vote in this presidential election, or I don't want to vote for House District people or whatever. I don't like any of them.’
Robbins: Yeah, absolutely. So there is so much more to the ballot than a candidate, right? So you have your candidates, maybe you don't want to vote for them, and you don't have to, but we do have ballot measures that affect the entirety of our state, and so really look at the ballot and what's on there. You can vote for one thing. You can vote for everything. But get out there and make sure you're making your voice heard. Because like Dorothy said, our vote is our voice, and our voice is our power. And Alaska could have a lot of power if we get out there and vote.
Garcia: We have a lot of moving bodies. There's a lot of Native people in the state alone. And if we just work together like we did with [the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act], we can change the direction of our future, and that's really more important. We need more of our young Native people out here voting. You know, the Elders understand, but do the young people understand? So we really need them to stand behind them, and just support our future and be the voices of our future. A lot of these people who are in office, they're not going to be here for the future that they're trying to create. So we need more young people specifically to engage and participate in their own futures and you don't want to regret it. So get out there and vote.
KYUK: Are there other things that you want to emphasize as we're talking about voting, whether, I mean, we talked about early voting, which is open at the [Orutsararmiut Native Council] building [in Bethel], 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. And is there anything else you want to emphasize to people about voting or getting out the vote, which is what you're here in Bethel to talk about?
Shockley: Well, I think there's a lot of issues, you know, you have, of course, the candidates and the ballot measure. But when you think about your everyday life, there's so many policies that people are making decisions about, and so, you know those are important right now. There's very few fish in the rivers. So one thing that we need to do is stop the trawling in the ocean, and so, you know, just think about things that really matter to you, and make sure that you know you're voting for those values and those issues that are important. And get out and talk to your legislators. They're just a phone call away, and they understand and will answer some of your questions that you might have.
KYUK: Where are you directing people if they want information about candidates, about ballot measures, those sorts of things? Obviously I'll make a plug for KYUK’s reporting on elections. We've been doing interviews with every candidate who will agree to do an interview with us, and we're trying to get out information also about ballot measures and such. And we'll be having a live elections call-in show at 11 a.m. on Friday, that's November 1, so people can call in, and we'll have information about all the things on the ballot. But other than those things that I'm plugging, where are you sending people for information?
Robbins: Well, that's super exciting, and I'm going to be listening in to that if I can. We're sending them, of course, to the [Alaska] Division of Elections, where it highlights every candidate and their profiles, what they believe in, and the ballot measures, as well as their local locations where they can talk to folks who are maybe working in local politics, and the radio stations, just anywhere that the message can be heard, really. And we're kind of acting as part of that message as well by going door to door and talking to people about what's happening in the state, getting out that vote, and we have other campaigns that we're working on at the same time.
KYUK: What's next for you all? Where do you go from Bethel?
Robbins: I'm going to Juneau, Brittani is going to Juneau.
Slim: I'll still be here in Bethel, Raquel.
Garcia: And then Alicia is going back to Anchorage.
Shockley: And this is Dorothy. I'm going back to Fairbanks, and maybe to Wales to do some poll working.
KYUK: Very nice.
Shockley: And that's the other thing. You know, every community needs poll workers, and right now there is a shortage. So they definitely are recruiting. And it's very easy, very easy training, and –
Robbins: It's fully paid. You get paid to travel, if you need to get to a location, you get paid to be there. It's, like she said, a really simple training. And if there's a location, and maybe with KYUK, with you having that 11 o'clock call-in, if there are locations that are in need of poll workers, maybe their polling location didn't open, or they don't typically have a polling location. We can get in contact with our director, Autumn Cantu, and she will get in contact with our liaison and get someone at your location to be a poll worker. We do have that opportunity within our working group. It's autumn@mobilizationcenter.org and she gets that information off, and we can be certain that you will have a poll worker and your polls will be open.
KYUK: Thanks very much.
Robbins: And also, just one note, if you are doing mail-in [voting], check with your local post office, make sure the dates that they're going to be open, because even if you turn your ballot in prior to [Nov. 5], if it is not postmarked prior to the fifth it will not be counted. And also ensure that you have two signatures on that ballot. You must have a witness signature. It doesn't matter who it is, just make sure that there are two signatures on that ballot.
KYUK: Yeah, those are, those are really important things. I believe the [Yukon-Kuskokwim] Delta had the highest number of rejected ballots in that special election in 2022, the [Yukon-Kuskokwim] Delta did have the highest number of rejected ballots, and a lot of that was because there are very specific things you need. You need voter identification, that's either a driver's license number or the last four digits of a social security number. Two signatures, your signature and someone else's signature. And proper postage, which is usually two stamps, the post office has said that they will still deliver ballots without those two stamps. But do the two stamps, just to really cover all the bases. Anything else we want to touch on before we wrap this up?
Shockley: Just get out and vote, and please bring someone with you, hopefully two people, and that way it'll increase the turnout by 50%, 25%, 75%.
Garcia: Yeah, just vote. Just exercise your rights and just do it. Don't be that person that says that your voice doesn't matter, and it absolutely does. You know, Native Americans have only been voting since 1924, that's only 100 years ago, one generation. Alaska Natives, we started voting a little later, just because of all the influx of people and just so many things going on at the time. Our ancestors did show us the way during [the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act], our Elders showed us how we need to take a foot in their steps and just exercise our vote, exercise our rights and vote. Just do it, practice, and then continue to do it. You can do it more than one time a year, just do it. You can’t have no right to complain if you don't vote, get out the Native vote.
KYUK: Quyanaqvaa, thank you all so much for your time today.
Robbins: Gunalcheésh.
Slim: Quyana.
Garcia: Quyana taikuu.
Find KYUK’s 2024 Elections coverage here.
In Bethel, voters can vote early through absentee in-person voting until Election Day, at the Orutsararmiut Native Council building from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Anyone who has received a mail-in ballot must have it postmarked on or before Nov. 5. Mail-in ballots also need to have a voter signature, a witness signature, and a voter identifier like a drivers’ license number or the last four digits of a social security number.
And tune into KYUK at 11 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 1, to KYUK’s Elections call-in show, where we’ll be discussing all the issues and races on the ballot.
