Voting the Hard Way

Typically, one out of three American voters fails to cast his ballot on Election Day. Those who stayed home out of laziness or apathy could learn a lesson from Alaska's voters. Ballots are para chuted into remote villages weeks before the election. Then, provided wind currents do not carry the voting kits across the Bering Strait into Soviet territory or the caribou migrations have not lured voters away from their precincts, the hard part begins. Eskimos in the bush view their ballot as important, and paddle boats and mush dogsleds many miles to reach the polls. Results are relayed by radio, but transmissions are sometimes interrupted by atmospheric interference from the Northern Lights. The election supervisor in Nome has yet to be excited by the problems voters faced on Nov. 3. She is still waiting to hear about the primary in the Kobuk River village of Ambler. Nothing has been heard from Ambler since September.

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