Voters line the lobby of Anchorage City Hall on Monday, with most waiting 90 minutes to two hours that morning to cast their ballots at an early voting location there. Early voting in Alaska was much more popular this year than in previous election years, state statistics show. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

This year, Alaskans made a dramatic shift from past years in their voting practices, choosing in large numbers to cast their ballots before Election Day rather than on Tuesday.

As of Sunday, 61,912 Alaskans had voted early, according to Alaska Division of Elections statistics, which did not include totals from Monday, the last day of early voting. This compares with 38,242 early voters in the 2016 general election and 19,937 early voters in the 2012 general election, according to division statistics. The number of early votes this year even exceeded that of 2020, when voters opted for alternative ways to vote due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the division’s statistics.

The heavy trend of early voting this year led to long queues and long delays, with queues sometimes snaking around buildings, causing people to endure miserable weather as they waited. In some cases, the waits stretched for hours.

Among those who spent a lot of time in line was U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, who waited nearly two hours to cast her vote Monday at Anchorage City Hall. The lobby was full when she was there and there were other issues including a clogged toilet in the ladies room.

Because campaigning is banned at polling places, it ended with a welcome break from political talk, she said. As he made his way through the line, he sipped a hot chocolate, one of a batch of hot drinks bought for the candidate and campaign staff members by councilor Anton McParland.

He didn’t want any coffee right then, she said. “My nerves don’t need any caffeine boost right now,” she said.

Nick Begich, her Republican opponent, also voted early Monday. He faced a shorter wait — about 40 minutes — but noted that he arrived at 7:50 a.m., 10 minutes before the Eagle River Town Center polling place opened. There was already a line this morning, he said.

There are good reasons to vote early, Begich said.

“If you’re 90 percent sure you’re going to vote on Election Day, you can be 100 percent sure if you vote early,” he said after eating an Election Day lunch at Jackie’s Place, a restaurant in West Anchorage’s Spenard neighborhood. Waiting until Election Day to vote creates a risk of unexpected obstacles, such as bad weather or health problems, he said. “Life events might come up,” he said.

Like Peltola, he said the high level of early voting may have come as a surprise. “I don’t think anyone expected to see the level of early voting that we saw in this election,” he said.

Although they existed numerous sites in the state set up for early voting, it might be a good idea to have more such sites in future elections, Begich said.

There was at least one beneficiary of the early voting rush: City Grind, the coffee shop in the lobby of City Hall.

Owner Kim Lemish said the cafe brought in an additional $200 or more each day during the two-week early voting period at City Hall. “Lots of lattes, brevi, muffins, cakes, breakfast sandwiches,” she said. Her usual closing time is 3 p.m., but she stayed open a little past, so if there were lines, she said,

Pinned to a plastic panel at her counter is one of I Voted Tlingit Art Stickers.which he received on October 21, the first day of early voting. That day, she walked across the hall to fill out her ballot, she said.

“That Monday, it was so busy,” she said. But her husband, who works upstairs at City Hall, alerted her to a break in the line, she said. “He said, ‘OK, go vote now, because there’s no line.’

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