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‘No Kings’ activists in Juneau urge engagement before and after midterm elections, with early voting set to begin Monday
Organizers urge casting ballots before Election Day on Nov. 3, volunteering to monitor process and being watchful for efforts to challenge winners
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
Pleas to take advantage of early voting that begins Monday and remain engaged until the winners of the Nov. 3 midterm elections are sworn in were made by organizers of a "No Kings" rally in Juneau on Saturday, the latest in a series of nationwide rallies since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.
About 70 people standing along Egan Drive next to the Douglas Bridge were waving signs and other items about halfway through the planned hour-long event, with rain at the start diminishing during the rally. The turnout was much lower than previous local "No Kings" rallies that drew more 1,000 people, but Anjuli Grantham, an organizer with Juneau For Democracy, said the current effort involves a series of actions rather than just a single gathering.
"We're going to be doing additional sign waving over the next couple of weeks," she told the crowd. She also urged attendees to get friends and family to vote early, and to sign up as election volunteers and observers to help ensure the election goes smoothly — and to call attention to a concerning situation if one arises.
"If there is something that is fishy here in Juneau we will message everyone and tell you what the plan is," Grantham said. "We're setting up a rapid response network in case something happens here, and also in response to national calls for solidarity to enforce the election."
Finally, Grantham said, people need to be watchful to ensure people who prevail in the elections are sworn into Congress and other officials during the months that follow.
Concerns about disruptions to the usual voting process have been expressed by residents and public officials in Alaska and beyond due to unprecedented actions by Trump to seize federal control of elections based on his false claims of widespread fraud, including continuing to claim he won the 2020 presidential election. Polls are showing Democrats with an increasing chance of winning back control of both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, prompting some Trump critics to question if he will fail to accept that outcome as legitimate.
Among his election control efforts are an unsuccessful attempt to restrict mail voting that was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, plus ordering states to hand over confidential voter information to federal agencies — and threatening punishment and intervention for states that refuse his demands.
Questions have also been raised about actions by the Alaska Division of Elections, including turning over the requested voter data to the Trump administration, and placing more than 3,000 voters on inactive status due to alleged citizenship questions — more than five times as many as a year ago.
Cecil Byford, 21, a lifelong Juneau resident at Saturday’s rally, said one of her concerns is marginalized people may struggle to get their ballots counted as legitimate.
"II think trans people, specifically, might struggle to provide birth records, or just anybody who's estranged from their family who doesn't have immediate access to their birth records or who doesn't have a passport available," she said. "I think that they are trying to put up barriers. They try and claim that it's to prevent illegitimate voting, but I think they are trying to make it harder for people to vote in general."
Another concern, Byford said, is AI-generated material depicting politicians saying false things and other attempts to sow confusion.
"I know I have quite a few friends online who have talked about how they haven't been voting because they've just been really confused and really concerned, and they don't know what information is reliable," she said.
Nationwide "No Kings" organizers got additional fuel for their claims of fishy business when the coalition’s Instagram account was frozen and pulled down Saturday, according to the Los Angeles Times. The account was inaccessible for nearly two hours before it was restored and visible to the public.
“The No Kings admin have lost access to the account,” a statement by organization noted. “We are unable to log in and it happened at the peak of our national day of action.”
The Times article states an inquiry to Meta Platforms Inc., which owns Instagram, about the account disruption did not receive a response at the time the story was published.
Early voting in Juneau will be available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays at the State Office Building and Mendenhall Mall Annex. The annex will also be open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. Additional early voting information is available at the Alaska Division of Elections website.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
