Alaska 2004 Voting Results: Government Does Confusing Things

Alaska's final 2004 election returns include a confusing description of how the votes are reported. The first part explains why the turnout was "over 100%" in Anchorage:

Voter Turnout for Municipality of Anchorage Precincts

In House Districts 16 – 32 some precincts show more than 100 percent voter turnout. This is because the State of Alaska conducted a special election for the Municipality of Anchorage concurrently with the 2004 General Election. In these districts, there were two ballots, a State ballot and a Municipality ballot. The % Turnout is based on the Cards Cast number. Because each voter could have cast two ballots the turnout in these districts is inflated. In these districts look at the Times Counted number for the US Presidential race to determine the actual number of State ballots cast in each precinct. This number, divided by the number of registered voters will yield the turnout for the precinct:

Early Voting Results

In each district there is a row entitled R# Early Voting. This presents the early voting results for each of the state’s four regions. The results are shown for entire regions, not for individual districts. Because the early voting results are for the entire region, the same regional numbers are repeated in each district. For example, Region 1 contains House Districts 1-5 and 33-36. The same early voting results are presented on the R1 Early Voting row in all districts in Region 1. Although the results are listed multiple times, they were not counted more than once. These results were reported only once in the statewide summary, which accurately presents the results for each race.

Partial Count Absentee & Questioned

A voter's ballot is partially counted if he or she votes out of district and is not eligible for particular races on the ballot. The Division counts what the voter is eligible to vote and considers it a "partial count." In each district's report there is a row entitled R# HD#-#, which represents Absentee & Questioned that were partially counted for each regional office. This presents the partial counts for Absentee & Questioned voting results for the House Districts listed (HD#-#). The results are not for individual districts. Although the results are listed in each district, they were not counted more than once. These results were reported only once in the statewide summary, which accurately presents the results for each race.

The first paragraph doesn't sound too bad. You just have to look at the presidential race results to get the turnout instead of the column marked "turnout".

The second paragraph shows that in statewide races, the only available breakdown of votes not cast on Election Day is into only five regions. This doesn't give monitors a whole lot of detail.

The third paragraph I don't understand at all. The results on the reports (link) are totally confusing. There might be a guide to this somewhere, but I can't find it on the site.

The 2006 and 2008 returns are better written. It makes you feel less like the Alaska Division of Elections is trying to pull a fast one.