Election Day

The last polling places to close in the US are in the Aleutian Islands. They close in about an hour. These islands are the farthest west you can go in the US. The election is not over until the polls here close.

I don't think that the few thousand votes will make a difference to the outcome of the election. And it is likely that the election will be decided before the polls close.

But you would not know this from being here. The votes here count. And the political debate is as vigorous as anywhere else in the US. Alaska is very conservative. In fact, if many people really believed what they say, they would be voting Libertarian. Really, no different than in the Desert Southwest. At the same time, I hang out with teachers, who are largely very liberal. The local elections here were last week. The new mayor beat the incumbent by just 5 votes. I heard last night that everyone is trying to take credit for being one of the five votes!