ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — On a deserted stretch of tundra island in western Alaska, an Adak resident will once again become the last American to vote for president in person, continuing a 12-year tradition for the country’s westernmost community.
The honor of having the country’s last voter fell to Adak when they abolished postal-only voting and introduced in-person voting in the 2012 election.
“This is a day for people to have a little fun because realistically everyone knows the election is decided before we close,” said City Manager Layton Lockett. “But it’s still fun.”
When the polls close in Adak, it is 1 a.m. on the east coast.
Adak Island is located midway in the Aleutian Islands chain and is bordered by the Bering Sea to the north and the North Pacific to the south. It is closer to Russia than to 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 farther west than Hawaii, where polls close an hour earlier.
Mary Nelson said Republican Mitt Romney was likely to hand the 2012 race to President Barack Obama on election night as she became Adak’s first final vote-getter in a presidential election, even though she didn’t know Obama had been re-elected until the next morning when she turned herself in turned computers against them to read election results.
Nelson, who now lives in Washington state, reminded The Associated Press by telephone that she was a poll worker in Adak at the time and had forgotten to vote until just before polls closed at 8 p.m.
“When I opened the curtain (of the voting booth) to come out, the city manager took a photo of me and announced that I was the last person in Adak to vote,” she said.
This also ended the celebration as there was still work to do.
“We had to count votes and they were waiting in Nome for us to call to count our votes,” she said.
There are U.S. territories farther west than Alaska, but there is no process in the Electoral College that allows residents of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and the smaller American overseas islands to vote for president, according to the National Archives.
“I was excited and told people about it,” said Nelson, now 73. “I have the story that I printed out about it and I’m showing it to some people who I think would think it’s a big deal, like my family,” she said.
Adak Island is historically significant due to its role in World War II. The U.S. established facilities on the island after Japanese forces captured islands further west in the Aleutian chain.
In August 1942, troops landed to begin construction of an army base, and two months later enemy aircraft dropped nine bombs on the island, albeit 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 assembled on Adak as a base to recapture the nearby island of Attu from the Japanese.
Famous Americans stationed in Adak included writers Dashiell Hammett and Gore Vidal. According to the Adak Historical Society, the island also played host to President Franklin Roosevelt, world boxing champion Joe Lewis and several Hollywood stars.
To put it more simply, the army tried to create a forest on Adak Island between 1943 and 1945. A sign posted by residents in the 1960s outside the area of 33 trees read: “You are now entering and exiting the Adak National Forest.”
After the war, the island was handed over to the Air Force and then to the Navy in 1950. Nearly 80,000 acres (32,000 hectares) of the 180,000-acre (73,000 hectares) island were reserved for Navy employ and the remainder of the island remained part of what later became the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.
The base was closed in 1997. The Navy retains about 5,600 acres (2,300 hectares), with the remainder owned by either the Aleut Corp., the Alaska Native regional corporation for the area; the city of Adak or the refuge.
Lockett said the city is facing complex times as its population declines and it lacks an economic engine. The city’s fish processing plant has closed several times over the years.
When the base was energetic, Adak Island was home to approximately 6,000 residents. The 2020 census counted 171 residents. Lockett says the number is now likely down to under 50 full-time residents.
In Alaska, a school must have 10 students to remain open. Aleutian Area School District Superintendent Mike Hanley said in an email that the school closed in 2023 after starting the year with six students. In November that shrunk to one, and then the student left the company.
Hanley said when he notified the state Department of Education, “there were literally no children on the island, not even younger preschoolers.”
When it comes to politics, Lockett said, in a petite town it’s pretty simple to know where your neighbors are doing politically, but there seems to be one goal that unites everyone.
Whoever is in office, will they try to “encourage the military to return to Adak in some way, shape or form?” he said.
“We’re in the middle of figuring out what’s next for Adak because we’re struggling,” he said.
With the presidential election just around the corner, the city can, for now, focus on its unique place in America.
“I’m not sure who the last voter will be this year,” said Jana Lekanoff, Adak city clerk. “Maybe it will be a bit of a competition?”
