Appointed officials are in the process of redrawing Alaska’s voting districts. The boundaries are reshaped each decade following the release of the U.S. Census data. Here's how the changes could affect the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
The process is still in its early stages.
Per its constitution, Alaska has 40 state House districts. The goal is for each district to have about the same population, to provide for equal representation in the state legislature. This year that number is 18,335 people per district.
When an area’s population grows, more people are packed together, and the district shrinks in geographic size.
That’s what’s proposed to happen to District 38. Currently, the district stretches from the Bering Sea coast, up the Kuskokwim River to the community of Crooked Creek. It includes Nunivak Island and the city of Bethel.
Under the proposed changes, the district would lose its five upper Kuskokwim River communities and only stretch up to Tuluksak. Those five Kuskokwim communities would be absorbed into District 37 to the south, which spans the Bristol Bay region and the Aleutian Islands.
District 38 would also lose a lower Yukon River community. Currently, District 38 includes Marshall and Russian Mission. Under the proposed changes, it would retain Russian Mission, but the community of Marshall would be absorbed into District 39 to the north, which covers the other lower Yukon River communities and the Norton Sound region.
The state redistricting board has adopted two proposed maps of Alaska’s new districts and could produce more. There’s no difference between the maps for the districts encompassing the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
Of the five-member board, three are registered Republicans. To avoid gerrymandering, Redistricting Board Deputy Director TJ Presley says that the board did not incorporate political data into its mapping software.
“So it is simply not possible if it was a political gerrymandering question to say, ‘Oh, I want to move this district and help some Democrats or help some Republicans,’” Presley said.
The Alaska constitution lists four factors that the board must consider when drawing districts.
“Districts must be compact, contiguous, and relatively socioeconomically integrated. And then it says the districts must be of equal population,” Presley said.
Compact means they can’t have odd appendages. Contiguous means that you can travel from one part of the district to the other without leaving it. Equal population is just that. The socioeconomic integration is the subjective factor. And one, Presley says, that the board encourages people to help the board better understand.
“We're really definitely interested in people talking to us about the socioeconomic ties between communities, because that's the sort of information that five board members and a few staff just does not have between them. And that's where we really benefit from hearing from residents of the state,” Presley said.
The community of Hooper Bay wrote a letter asking the board to include it in District 38 with the city of Bethel. Hooper Bay said that it is economically and politically tied to Bethel in a way it is not with the Norton Sound region, which its current voting district includes.
Hooper Bay is one of the region’s larger communities at 1,375 people, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. Because each district can only have so many people, Presley said that the board had to choose between including a single large community and cutting out smaller upper Kuskokwim River communities. It chose to keep the smaller communities.
“So it's kind of a weighing and a balancing,” Presley said.
The board will adopt a final map by Nov. 10. You can submit public comment to the board on their website, by mail, or at their public meetings.
