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            If you haven't bothered to vote in a few years, you may soon be getting a notice from the state of Alaska asking if you'd like to stay registered. Don't worry about losing your vote right away though. As Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai explains, it's a rather long process before an inactive voter's name is purged from the rolls.

-- (Elections 1             37 sec              "We generally mail in the ... it's a multi-step process.")

            She said the process starts in November every year, culminating in the notices to inactive voters:

-- (Elections 2             26 sec              "If a voter gets a notification ... in active status.")

            She said last year's purge resulted in the removal of 16,842 names from the voter rolls last January.

-- (Elections 3             23 sec              "Those were people who ... voter registration rolls.")

            Fenumiai said even if someone is not interested in voting in statewide elections for some reason, the state does manage the voter rolls for municipalities also, meaning it would be impossible to vote in borough, council or school board elections. She said that it's common for people to move without updating their registration, which could result in problems voting in their new town:

-- (Elections 4             32 sec              "Unfortunately people register ... house district jurisdictions.")

            The Division has an easy way to check if your registration is active or inactive, on its website: elections dot Alaska dot gov. We have a link with this story on our web site.

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