One of us is a white, farm-raised, former Republican man who moved here after college; the other is an Alaska Native woman, with over 10,000 years of

Alaska’s election system has upped its game. The rest of the nation should follow - Roll Call

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2021-06-17 19:30:04

One of us is a white, farm-raised, former Republican man who moved here after college; the other is an Alaska Native woman, with over 10,000 years of ancestors born of these lands, and a registered undeclared voter. But while we are very different people, we agree on one important point: Alaska is a home we need to work harder to be worthy of.

Yes, we’re big — more than double the size of Texas. We’re abundant — more than 3 million lakes. We’re natural — the source of half the wild salmon caught on earth, plus more than half of the nation’s park land. And, most importantly, we’re diverse — nearly 40 percent of Alaskans are people of color, over 100 languages are spoken in our schools, and this incredible place created 20 Native languages spoken nowhere else on earth. We also happen to be the northernmost, westernmost and easternmost state in the union.

But while you might be more familiar with these aspects of Alaska, there’s another, relatively new distinction that you need to know about: Our election system has upped its game.