OPINION: Making sure every Alaskan is heard is worth the wait

As a Democrat from Kotzebue and a Republican from Kodiak, the two of us certainly had disagreements while serving in the Legislature over the years. Our rural coastal communities had many things in common, and we often found consensus on issues that affected those interests and our state as a whole.

While there’s a lot of attention paid to what divides Republicans from Democrats these days, we are Alaskans first, and we need to do what’s right for our neighbors across the state. That’s why we both support the new Alaska election system that puts voters first.

We start with the new open primary. The majority of Alaskans -- more than 60% -- don’t identify with a major political party. The old system, with the Republican Party conducting a closed primary, polarized Alaskan voters. The new primary allows all of us to vote for the person we think will do the best job, no matter what side of the aisle they are on.

The next step in the process is ranked-choice voting, where candidates must find common ground with a larger pool of voters, including those that they might not agree with on every issue. We think these changes in the system bring Alaskans together instead of focusing on the differences that move us apart.

We still have the integrity and security of the system, the hard-working public servants at the Division of Elections, and the local community volunteer committees doing the right thing for our voters.

In a state as large as ours, every ballot can’t be collected and counted in the few hours after the polls close. That is why we still wait 15 days for every Alaskan’s vote to come in and be counted before declaring a winner. We owe it to our men and women in the military serving overseas, our young adults traveling outside for an education, and Alaskans from Kotzebue to Kodiak and Unalaska to Kake to respect their vote and be patient as their ballots make their way back to be counted.

We both understand that change can be frustrating at times. Please give it a couple of voting cycles and you will see that this will be the best voting system for Alaska.

Alan Austerman is a Republican and former state senator from Kodiak. Reggie Joule is a Democrat and former state representative from Kotzebue.

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