ANKERAGE, Alaska — On a desolate island tundra in western Alaska, an Adak resident will once again become the last American to personally vote for president, continuing a 12-year tradition for the nation’s westernmost community.
The honor of having the last voter in the country fell to Adak when they eliminated absentee voting and added in-person voting for the 2012 elections.
“People are having a little bit of fun that day because I mean, realistically, everyone knows the outcome of the election long before we close,” said City Manager Layton Lockett. “But you know what, it’s still fun.”
When the polls close in Adak, it will be 1 a.m. on the East Coast.
Adak Island, midway along the Aleutian Islands 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 to concede the 2012 race to President Barack Obama on election night when she became Adak’s first voter in the presidential election, although she did not know Obama had been re-elected until the next morning when she turned against her. computer to read the election results.
Nelson, who now lives in Washington state, recalled to The Associated Press by phone that she was a poll worker in Adak at the time and forgot to vote until just before the polls closed at 8 p.m.
“As I opened the curtain of the polling booth to come back out, the city manager took a photo of me and announced that I was the last person in Adak to vote,” she said.
That was also the end of the party, because they still had work to do.
“We had to count votes and they were waiting for us in Nome to call our vote count,” she said.
There are U.S. territories further west than Alaska, but according to the National Archives, there is no process within the Electoral College to allow residents of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and the U.S. Small Outlying Islands to vote for president .
“I’m tickled and I’ve been telling people about it,” says Nelson, now 73. “I printed out the story I did about it and showed it to some people who I think would be a big deal, like my family,” she says. said.
Adak Island has historical significance due to its role in World War II. The US built facilities on the island after Japanese forces seized islands further west in the Aleutian Islands chain.
Troops landed in August 1942 to begin construction of an army base, and enemy planes two months later dropped nine bombs on the island, but in undeveloped areas, and riddled the landscape with machine gun fire. The Navy began building facilities in January 1943.
In May 1943, approximately 27,000 combat troops gathered Adak as a staging post to recapture near Attu Island of the Japanese.
Among the famous Americans stationed at Adak were writers Dashiell Hammett and Gore Vidal. According to the Adak Historical Society, the island also played host to President Franklin Roosevelt, boxing champion Joe Lewis and several Hollywood stars.
On a lighter note, the military attempted to establish a forest on Adak Island between 1943 and 1945. A sign placed outside the 33-tree area by residents in the 1960s read: “You are now entering and exiting the Adak National Forest.”
After the war, the island was transferred to the air force and then to the navy in 1950. Nearly 32,000 acres of the 73,000-acre island were set aside for Navy use, and the rest of the island remained part of the island. of what eventually became the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.
The base was closed in 1997. The Navy retains about 5,600 acres and the remainder is 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 going through tough times with a declining population and a lack of an economic engine. The city’s fish processing plant has closed several times over the years.
When the base was active, there were approximately 6,000 residents on Adak Island. The 2020 census counted 171 residents. Lockett says that’s probably fewer than 50 full-time residents now.
In Alaska, a school must have ten students to stay open. Mike Hanley, the superintendent of the Aleutian Region School District, said in an email that the school closed in 2023 after starting the year with six students. That dropped to one in November, and then that student left.
Hanley said that by the time he notified the state education department, “there were literally no children on the island, not even younger preschoolers.”
When it comes to politics, Lockett said that in a small town it’s pretty easy 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 return to Adak somehow?” he said.
“We’re kind of in the middle of Adak’s future because we’re struggling,” he said.
For now, with the presidential elections approaching, the city can focus on its unique place in America.
“I’m not sure who the last voter will be this year,” Adak City Clerk Jana Lekanoff said. “Maybe it will be a bit of a competition?”