In two and a half weeks we will all be voting – in fact, many people are already voting, in states with mail-in or early voting. But November 5th is the large day when the contest between Republicans Donald Trump/JD Vance and Democrats Kamala Harris/Tim Walz will finally be decided. At least we hope that the decision will be made on November 5th and that when we wake up on November 6th everything will be over except for the screaming.
Here’s an electoral curiosity, though: In the 2024 election, the last person to vote for president in person will be an Alaskan — more specifically, an Alaskan on the Aleutian island of Adak:
On a desolate 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.
The United States is a large place. About 3,000 miles separate the east and west coasts of the Lower 48 – and about 3,000 miles separate the easternmost part of the Alaska Panhandle, where Sitka and Juneau are also located Hyder, the easternmost settlement in Alaska and the Aleutian island of Adak.
Note that there are US possessions further west than Adak, but although the people who live there are American citizens, they, like Puerto Ricans, don’t vote for president:
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.
Adak has an fascinating story.
It is no longer a commonly taught piece of World War II history, but the Aleutian Island chain, then part of the Alaska Territory, was the only place where United States territory was invaded and occupied by Axis forces in that war. The islands of act And pussy were ambushed and occupied by Japanese troops, partly as a distraction from what Admiral Yamamoto had hoped would be the decisive blow against the U.S. Pacific Fleet Halfway there. This battle did not go exactly as the Japanese admiral had intended, and Adak served as a staging area for U.S. forces that recaptured the other islands. After the war, the Navy established an air station there, which is now closed, although there are rumors that the Navy may be there I’m thinking about reopening; Given the current conditions in the Western Pacific, that’s probably not a bad idea.
See related: Four Chinese warships spotted off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands
Japanese fighter planes approach and exploit flares to fend off Russian spy plane
When the polls close in Adak, we will probably already know the result. But it is to the credit of the people who live in this far away place that they still go to their polling stations and do their civic duty.
