Virgene Hanna

The Alaska Division of Elections asked ISER to survey voters in three southwest Alaska census areas, to ask what methods they'd like to use for voting in the future. More than 400 registered voters took the survey: 49% wanted to keep voting as they do now, at polling places; 36% preferred to get ballots in the mail and have options for returning them; and 14% wanted to get ballots in the mail and mail them back.

The division is interested in what voters prefer for the future, because it will soon need to replace state voting equipment that's outdated and expensive to repair. Interviewers called voters in the Bethel, Dillingham, and Kusilvak census areas and got a 70% response rate.

Download the report, Perceptions of Universal Ballot Delivery Systems, by Virgene Hanna and Jessica Passini.  If you have questions about the survey, get in touch with Virgene Hanna, ISER's survey director, at mhanna7@alaska.edu.

For 20 years, Kids Count Alaska has been an ongoing program at ISER. It's part of the nationwide KIDS COUNT program, sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, to assess the welfare of children around the country and provide data to support policies for improving children's lives. ISER researchers have taken a preliminary look at trends in Alaska over the past two decades, and found that children here are doing better in several ways: babies are much more likely to survive, high-school droput rates are lower, and the rate of violent deaths (accident, suicides, and homicides) among teenagers has dropped by nearly half.

Researchers with Kids Count Alaska will be taking a more detailed look at 20-year trends in the well-being of Alaska's children and teenagers in the months to come. If there are specific measures of well-being you'd like us to look at, get in touch with Virgene Hanna, director of Kids Count Alaska, at 907-786-5431 or mhanna7@uaa.alaska.edu.

ISER publications are solely the work of individual authors and should be attributed to them, not to ISER, the University of Alaska Anchorage, or the research sponsors.

The 2013-2014 Kids Count Alaska data book reports that teenagers in the state commit crime at only about half the rate they did 20 years ago, and that Alaska is one of the safest places in the country to be born, with the share of babies born at low birthweight 25% below the national average.

The new data book includes much more information on the health, safety, education, and economic status of Alaska's children and teenagers. Virgene Hanna, a senior researcher at ISER, directs Kids Count Alaska, which is part of the nationwide KIDS COUNT program, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The foundation sponsors programs in all 50 states, presenting data from many sources on the well-being of American children.

Download the data book (PDF, 2.5MB), or request a printed copy from ISER at 907-786-7710. If you have questions, get in touch with Virgene Hanna at 907-786-5431 or mhanna7@uaa.alaska.edu.

ISER publications are solely the work of individual authors and should be attributed to them, not to ISER, the University of Alaska Anchorage, or the research sponsors.