Last in-person vote will be cast on desolate tundra of Alaska's Aleutian Islands

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Mark Thiessen | Associated Press

Anchorage, Alaska – On a desolate slab of island tundra in western Alaska, a resident of Adak will again become the last American to cast an in-person ballot for president, continuing a 12-year tradition for the nation’s westernmost community.

The honor of having the last voter in the nation fell to Adak when they did away with absentee-only voting for the 2012 election and added in-person voting.

“People have a little bit of fun on that day because, I mean, realistically everybody knows the election’s decided way before we’re closed,” said city manager Layton Lockett. “But, you know, it’s still fun.”

When polls close in Adak, it’s 1 a.m. on the East Coast.

Adak Island, midway in the Aleutian Island chain and bordered by the Bering Sea to the north and the North Pacific Ocean to the south, is closer to Russia than mainland Alaska. The island best known as a former World War II military base and later naval station is 1,200 miles (1,931 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage and further west than Hawaii, where polls close an hour earlier.

Mary Nelson said Republican Mitt Romney was likely conceding the 2012 race to President Barack Obama on election night when she became Adak’s first last voter in a presidential election, although she didn’t know Obama had been reelected until the next morning when she turned on her computer to read election results.

Nelson, who now lives in Washington state, recalled to The Associated Press by telephone that she was a poll worker in Adak at the time and had forgotten to vote until just before the 8 p.m. poll closing time.

“When I opened the (voting booth's) curtain to come back out, the city manager took my picture and announced that I was the last person in Adak to vote,” she said.

That was also the end of the celebration since they still had work to do.

“We had votes to count, and they were waiting for us in Nome to call with our vote count,” she said.

There are U.S. territories farther west than Alaska, but there’s no process in the Electoral College to allow residents in Guam, the northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands to vote for president, according to the National Archives.

“I’ve been tickled pink and told people about it,” said Nelson, now 73. “I have the story I printed out about it and show some people who I think would think it’s a big deal, like my family,” she said.

Adak Island has historical significance for its role in World War II. The U.S. built facilities on the island after Japanese forces took islands farther west in the Aleutian chain.

Troops landed in August 1942 to began building an Army base, and enemy planes dropped nine bombs on the island two months later, but in undeveloped areas, and riddled the landscape with machine gun fire. The Navy began building facilities in January 1943.

In May 1943, about 27,000 combat troops gathered on Adak as a staging point to retake nearby Attu Island from the Japanese.

Among famous Americans stationed at Adak were writers Dashiell Hammett and Gore Vidal. The island also played host to President Franklin Roosevelt, boxing champion Joe Lewis and several Hollywood stars, according to the Adak Historical Society.

In a lighter note, the Army attempted to start a forest on Adak Island between 1943-45. A sign placed by residents in the 1960s outside the area of 33 trees noted: “You are now Entering and Leaving the Adak National Forest.”

After the war, the island was transferred to the Air Force and then the Navy in 1950. Nearly 80,000 acres (32,000 hectares) of the 180,000-acre (73,000 hectare) island were set aside for Navy use and the rest of the island remained part of what eventually became the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.

The base closed in 1997. The Navy retains about 5,600 acres (2,300 hectares) with the remainder either owned by the Aleut Corp., the Alaska Native regional corporation for the area; the city of Adak, or the refuge.

Lockett said the city is facing tough times with a dwindling population and lack of an economic driver. The town’s fish processing plant has closed numerous times over the years.

When the base was active, there were about 6,000 residents on Adak Island. The 2020 Census counted 171 residents. Lockett says that’s probably now down to below 50 full-time residents.

In Alaska, a school must have 10 students to remain open. Mike Hanley, the Aleutian Region School District superintendent, said in an email that the school closed in 2023 after it started the year with six students. That shrank to one by November, and then that student left.

Hanley said by the time he notified the state education department, “there were literally no children on the island, not even younger pre-K students.”

When it comes to politics, Lockett said it’s pretty easy in a small town to know where your neighbors fall politically, but there seems to be one goal that unites everyone.

Whoever is in office, are they going to try to “encourage the military to come back to Adak in some way, shape or form?” he said.

“We’re kind of in that great midst of, what’s next for Adak, because we’re struggling,” he said.

For now, with the presidential election coming up, the city can focus on its unique place in America.

“I’m not sure who the last voter will be this year,” said Adak City Clerk Jana Lekanoff. “Maybe it’ll be a bit of a competition?”

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