An easy trail to early voting in Alaska

 Make a plan, the TV ads and pundits say. A plan for voting? In the past we went to a local site on Election Day, cast our ballots and that was that. This year so different. As I thought about a plan I considered a mail-in ballot, a dropbox, voting early in person and waiting for Nov. 3 to go to my regular voting place.

I signed up for and received an absentee ballot which would have been good for the first two options. I even jumped through all the hoops to prepare my ballot including chasing down a friend to witness it on the sane day the courts ruled we didn't have to do that.

So here I sat wondering which of the choices would be best. With all the news and charges about voting obstructions flying around, we are faced with choosing where our ballots are safest and free from manipulation. Granted Alaska doesn't seem to have the problems many states are experiencing, but as always caution is a virtue. What I finally came up with was that the choice should be the one where the fewest number of people have access to the ballot. It might be exposed and vulnerable in a drop box. After all, drop boxes have been stolen in some places and in California Republicans were putting up false drop boxes. In the long run, I finally decided I would mail my ballot, but since it was on the way, I would check out the early voting facility, where the ballot would be exposed to the fewest people before it lands on the counting table, making it the best of the choices according to my personal criteria. My fall back solution would be waiting in line Nov. 3.

So, I drove into town yesterday, the prepared mail-in ballot in the copilot's seat, and headed first to the borough office building where the early voting station had been established. My first surprise was the number of empty parking places in the lot. I hopped out of the car and headed in. Then I spotted a guy coming out wearing his mask. Oops. Damn! Back to the truck to retrieve my forgotten one, then repeating the steps to the door.

The first things I noticed were three different places to sanitize my hands. I followed the trail of 6-foot social-distancing notices laid like stepping stones on the floor from the door into the main room. This was seemed about the size of a high school gymnasium. There must have been a couple of dozen polling enclosures at least. I swear only three of us were there to vote. I followed the directions to the tables where a masked poll worker had me sign in after checking my registration card, then gave me the correct ballot for my district, offered me a pen and off I went. Since I had already done my research and filled out a ballot it only took me a couple of minutes to mark this one. Then I went over to where my ballot was slipped into the collection machine, the pen put into a collection cup to be disinfected, I assumed, and headed out the door. I don't think I was in there even 5 minutes.

As I walked across the parking lot toward my truck I encountered a woman heading in the opposite direction. She looked at me and said "Oh, damn." I laughed and told her I had done the same thing as she turned to return to her vehicle to pick up her mask.

Oh crap, Then there's this Covid scare

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