How the Alaska Beacon covers elections

The Alaska Beacon’s election coverage is aimed at informing the state’s electorate with timely, nonpartisan news and information that they need to cast their vote. We think our work connecting Alaskans to their state government is key to a healthy democracy.

Readers often have questions about how we do that work, and the decision-making process that undergirds our coverage. You can find the answers to some common questions below, and on our elections page, which has all of our elections stories and resources.

When we’re covering elections, we use the “citizen’s agenda” approach. The basic idea is that we focus our coverage on what voters want to hear from candidates, rather than trying to determine who’s ahead before the votes have been cast or counted.

Because all our work is centered on state government and politics, we get a lot of new readers during elections. If you’re new here, Alaska Beacon is an independent, nonpartisan news organization. All of our reporting is produced by a four-person team of Alaskans based in Juneau and Anchorage.  

Our newsroom is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest nonprofit news organization, whose aim is to support newsrooms in each state capital. Our funding comes from States Newsroom — you can see all national supporters and financial disclosures here — and local donations from readers like you.

In addition to reported stories about candidates and ballot measures, we produce a voter guide. This year, the Alaska Beacon collaborated with Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Public Media and KTOO. We asked every Alaska candidate for U.S. House, U.S. Senate, governor and legislature their positions on several questions, drawing from input from readers. Most candidates responded to the questionnaire. 

Along with their answers, the guide includes some basic biographical information, their party affiliation, whether they are incumbents and links to their campaign sites. The guide also includes information about each district, as well as the term length and salary for each position.

How we explain voting

We have an election page devoted to the information voters need to successfully cast their ballots, including relevant dates, a how-to guide and a video that explains ranked choice voting. Additionally, we partnered with other Alaska outlets to create a voter guide that includes biographical information and policy positions of candidates on issues that matter to our readers.

How readers inform our work

We started asking what you want to hear from candidates this election season at the beginning of the year, and we updated our call this summer before the primary election. We renew that query in every morning newsletter. Don’t like filling out forms? Email us at [email protected].

How we hold politicians accountable

We ask politicians the questions we know our readers are asking, and we don’t just report their responses — we also look into their records to give readers context. The candidate responses to the questions in our voter guide are useful for helping voters make their pick, and also for keeping candidates accountable to the promises they made on the campaign trail once they’re elected.

How we choose which races to cover

We prioritize our coverage where we can be most useful. Our four-person team isn’t able to closely cover all 50 state legislative races, so we use our best judgement to decide which races to focus on. We strive to cover races that are the most competitive, or whose outcomes may have a significant effect on politics and policy in Alaska. We also factor in what interests our readers.  

How we work with other journalists and outlets

We choose collaborations that serve our aims of connecting Alaskans with their state government and providing a forum for commentary on state issues. We will seek out partnerships and collaborations that increase readers’ access to information, expand access to our nonpartisan reporting and that elevate the political discussion in the state. We think our citizens initiative approach is valuable, so we want to be wherever Alaskans are seeking information about elections candidates or issues. We are a non-profit newsroom and do not take any financial compensation for collaborations.

How we cover misinformation

In our reporting, we seek the documented, verifiable facts on issues. In elections, candidates make claims that do not always match what we can verify. In cases where political claims may mislead Alaskans, we will use documentation and context to bring the full picture. While we strive to verify facts through multiple sources, we sometimes get it wrong, and we commit to transparency by noting factual corrections in our stories. We do not use AI as a source and you can find our full ethics policy on our website.

Does this align with what you see in our coverage? Can you think of something we missed? Please let us know at [email protected].