Opinion ID: 1239200
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 19

Heading: Voting Behavior and Other Characteristics of Military

Text: A further indicator of resident characteristics of the military population would be registration to vote and actual voting records. Direct and complete data are not available, but a comparison of the voting record of the population (military and civilian) on the major defense bases with the remainder of Alaskans can be made. Table 9 indicates a very low voting percentage among persons on these bases as compared with the remainder of the state population. No means are available for segregating these statistics further on a military-civilian basis or of discovering similar indirect or direct measurements for off-base military election participation. One might surmise that military personnel in private dwellings off-base would have greater incentive to participate in local elections because of property taxation, local school policies, etc. However, there is no way to break out the vote; there are no voting records of military personnel living off-base. The limited information available would seem to reinforce the popular impression that for a variety of reasons (protection of voting rights elsewhere, briefness of Alaska residence, apathy, taxation, etc.) the on-base military generally do not participate in state or local elections. One of the Masters met with Col. Roger Koltz, Personnel Officer for the Alaska Command at Elmendorf Air Force Base. Col. Koltz advised that records of the Air Force and Army reflect that present Alaska residents of those two services numbered 125 and 65 respectively. Residence of record for this purpose is commonly established by members of the military for various reasons (tax and estate status, absentee voting rights, travel allowances, etc.). These figures, however, do not necessarily represent the type of residence contemplated by the Court's instructions. They do not include Navy and Coast Guard residents. Moreover, the latter are a potentially significant number because the policy of the Coast Guard is to encourage community participation. Finally, even the incomplete figures published for the Alaska general election of November 3, 1970 indicate that, in fact, more military personnel voted than claimed residence of record with the Alaska Command. (See Table 9) To be sure, voter registration data must be distinguished from residency data. But voter registration is still another index of permanency in Alaska, and as such, the data indicates that the residency of record figure used by the military is misleading as representing the number of military personnel who would actually claim legal residency.