No Other Word For It. Copper Valley Voter Turnout This November Was Terrible

COUNTRY JOURNAL REPORT 

It Was A Near-Record Voting Year Across America 

Almost 60% Of Voters In District 36 Cast A Ballot 

(Vote.Gov) 

  But In The Copper Valley Only Around One In Three Registered Voters Showed Up 

House District 36 is a vast chunk of land that stretches all across the core of Alaska, swooping into far-flung and distant places like Nenana, Ruby, Tetlin, Kaltag, and Arctic Circle, as well as the Copper River Region. Across this enormous rural district, 59.38% of registered voters went to the polls this November of 2024.

However, in the Copper Valley, voter participation was extremely low.  

The breakdown of percentiles of voters in the Copper Valley who actually cast ballots was significantly less than much of the rest of the district. 

In general, only about a third of eligible registered voters in the Copper Valley participated in the election. This may be a factor of not having any local issues to vote for. In Nenana, for example, there was a mayoral race, and 53% of people there voted. 

In Chistochina, 36% of eligible voters cast their votes. The percentage of Copper Center voters was less than that – 32% 

In Glennallen, the average continued to hover around that same mark – 33%.  It was the same in Kenny Lake, with just shy of 34% of that population getting out to vote. Gakona came in at 37%.

Mentasta did best with its community engagement… 45% of the people in Mentasta voted. 

Nationally, around 64% of registered voters came to the polls. This was a near-record year for US voter turnout. Minnesota was far over the top, with an 80% turnout. In Michigan, Colorado, Maine, Washington, New Hampshire, Oregon, New Jersey, Vermont and Wisconsin around three quarters of eligible voters turned up at the polls.

But even the worst performing states did better than the Copper Valley. 

Oklahoma and Arkansas, near the bottom of the barrel, had turnouts near 55% according to various figures. 

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All charts: State of Alaska Unofficial Results as of 3:27 pm, 11/19/2024