United Tribes of Bristol Bay offers schools up to $5,000 for top voter turnout

United Tribes of Bristol Bay is offering up to $5,000 each to schools and tribal cultural programs in the Bristol Bay communities with the highest or most improved voter turnout in the Nov. 3 general election.

The Community Voter Turnout Contest runs from the start of early voting Oct. 19 through Election Day. It has two categories: the highest share of a community's eligible voters who cast ballots, and the largest gain in that share over the 2022 general election. Each category pays $5,000 for first place, $2,500 for second, $1,500 for third and $1,000 for fourth.

The money goes to the winning community's school for student programs. If a community has no open school, it goes to the tribe for cultural programs.

"This contest does not in any way benefit individual voters for voting," UTBB says. The contest is not affiliated with any candidate, according to the group.

UTBB ran the same contest, with the same prizes, in the 2024 general election, according to a contest flyer, and a version of it in 2022.

Turnout in Native communities was once about nine in ten voters in the 1980s and has steadily declined since, Bristol Bay Native Corporation said in an Oct. 16 article. Bristol Bay now has nearly twice as many registered voters as it did in 1982, but fewer people cast ballots, the corporation said. Because voting methods can vary from village to village, UTBB and Get Out the Native Vote are helping residents understand their options.

UTBB is also running a social media contest for Bristol Bay residents 15 and older who make videos or memes encouraging people to vote. Entries can't endorse candidates or ballot measures, and any entry that names one candidate must name every candidate in that race equally. AI-made content isn't allowed. A member of the Bristol Bay Votes Coalition reviews each entry for accuracy and nonpartisanship.

That contest pays $1,000 each for People's Choice, Most Inspiring and Funniest, and every participant is eligible for $250 or a UTBB swag pack. Entries are due Nov. 2.

Other Native turnout efforts have used prizes this year. Interior Native Vote, a partnership of Tanana Chiefs Conference, the Fairbanks Native Association and Doyon, held a candidate mixer in July with prize drawings for attendees who spoke with multiple candidates, as Alaska News reported Aug. 10.