Before you can vote in an election, you need to be registered to vote. You have three options to register to vote. One can register online, they can fill out a paper form, or they can go to an Alaska Division of Elections office and register in person. When registering, an individual will be prompted to give their full name, date of birth, last four digits of their social security number, driver’s license/state ID number, city, residential and/or mailing address(es), phone number, email, and gender. They will also be asked to choose a political affiliation or to join a political party. After this information is provided, they will swear under penalty of perjury that the information they’ve entered is correct. In the online registration system, a person can simply click submit and their information will be entered and processed. In the paper format, they will need to mail the registration form to an Alaska Division of Elections office. In the in person format, an individual will receive personalized assistance from state employees in entering their information and will swear the oath in person. All people who want to vote in the next election must be registered no less than 30 days before it occurs in Alaska. Voter information must also be up to date (a voter’s address must be current, etc.) 30 days in advance of an election in order for their vote to be counted. The Division of Motor Vehicles can also register an individual to vote if they are renewing or receiving a driver’s license, since they collect all the same information required to do so. One has the ability to request an absentee ballot by filling out an online form, or a paper form. This requires them to fill in the same information as when they registered to vote, and additionally to give the address where they will receive the ballot, and the elections they want to vote in for that calendar year. Absentee ballots are screened thoroughly by a special committee responsible for them to ensure no voter fraud has occurred. Polling places will open for early voting a while prior to the actual election. One can look up the nearest polling stations near them on the Division of Elections website as well. When voting in person, an election worker will check your ID (which could be a driver’s license, state ID, passport, military ID, etc.) and look up your information in the state’s voter registration database. If your information is correct and you have not voted previously in the same election, you will be given a ballot. After voting, you will put the ballot in a voting machine, which ensures it will be counted.
I personally found the process to be very simple. The Division of Elections website had the correct links to the required forms and registration website and office information. They also had information about other details about voting, how the process works, and how to prepare. You can also look up polling places near you in your district/precinct. In addition to state resources informing you of how to register and where you can vote, there are also a lot of websites that provide detailed information for each state on the topic voting. I think that younger individuals are less likely to vote not so much because of difficulties registering and casting their ballot, but rather because they believe it is not important. The idea of democracy is one that today’s youth are not confident in, given the amount of lobbying and corruption in today’s (mainly federal) government and the crises this has led to. I feel like everyone is helped in the process at the individual level, however some political parties like the Republican Party may be hurt in elections as more of the population tends to naturally swing left politically.