TESTIMONY OPPORTUNITY: Vote At Home Kenai Peninsula Borough
The Kenai Peninsula Borough is considering switching to a Vote-At-Home system for the October 2020 election. Your voice is needed to support this change -- so that all residents can vote safely during the covid-19 pandemic.
Mail-in voting is safe, secure, and reliable. Don’t walk away from this chance to have the Borough elections by mail-in voting this October. And for the people that want to vote at the polls, they will still be able to do so. It’s a win-win for all.
Passing Ordinance 2020-24 will convey the message that we care about the Kenai Peninsula Borough citizens’ safety and we’re going to do everything in our power to make voting happen safely and securely. Everyone should feel that their voice matters.
To testify in support of ordinance 2020-24 contact Borough Clerk Secretary Tatyanah Shassetz.
Call 907-714-2160 to register, then join the Borough Assembly meeting via zoom at 6 p.m.
For inspiration, check out the letter below:
Dear Assembly Members and Borough Clerk,
By voting in favor of ordinance 2020-24 which will allow the Borough to do mail-in voting for the October election, we can make a statement that voting and safety are top priorities. As we saw in Wisconsin during their April primary, at least 67 people tested positive for Covid-19 associated with that event. As you all know, The Kenai Peninsula Borough stakeholders have conducted weekly meetings for a year to study the issue of accessibility and making voting more efficient. The stakeholders made their recommendations to the Borough Assembly and they were approved. One of the recommendations from this report was to do mail-in voting in case of an emergency. Covid-19 is that emergency. Waiting to see how the virus is impacting us in October is really not an option. By acting now about mail-in voting we can take the guessing game out of the equation.
Five states already do mail in voting, as well as many municipalities across the country. Juneau has decided to do mail in voting for their October election. The benefits of mail in voting are: it can be done safely, it could increase voter turnout, it gives more people more time to study the issues before they vote. (It is amazing to me, as a poll worker how few people really knew what was on the ballot when they actually got to the voting booth).
Our Democracy is at a cross roads right now. In my opinion the national discussion has been withered down to name calling and real substance seems to be lost. Younger voters are watching the grown-ups fight over voting options and it’s just another way to distract from the real issues.
I know many of you were at Dennis Wheeler’s presentation about mail-in voting and he was very thorough and answered many of our questions during that meeting. There were some questions regarding fraudulent voting and Mr. Wheeler was quite clear on this issue and talked about the “cure” process which notifies election workers if the signatures don’t match up. The fact of the matter is when you have a paper trail it is easier to follow the ballot.
Voting should have its own holiday and should be celebrated and honored. I’ve been working on getting more people to vote for over four years as a member of Kenai Peninsula Votes, and we just want people to vote. Mail-in voting is safe, secure and reliable. Don’t walk away from this chance to have the Borough elections by mail in voting this October. And for the people that want to vote at the polls, they will still be able to do so. It’s a win-win for all.
Passing Ordinance 2020-24 will convey the message that we care about the Kenai Peninsula Borough citizens’ safety and we’re going to do everything in our power to make voting happen safely and securely. Everyone should feel that their voice matters.
Sincerely,
Alex L. Koplin
Kenai Peninsula Votes