What's The Difference Between An Undeclared And A Nonpartisan Voter?

I became a voter registrar today and part of the training included the distinction between these two categories here in Alaska.

Undeclared means someone doesn't want to say what party they are registered with.  They could be Democratic, Republican, or one of the other two official parties and three political groups.

Nonpartisan means they have no party affiliation.

The person doing the training said most people don't know the difference between the two.  What is significant is that undeclared and nonpartisan voters are the only groups - along with declared Republicans - who can vote in the Republican primary.

You have to be registered 30 days before the election.  If a registrar - like I became today - takes your application and checks that you are who you say you are and watches you sign the application and signs the form - then your registration counts that day you got registered.  If the registrar doesn't sign your form, or you do it all by yourself and send it in, then it counts when the Division of Elections gets it.

The two state elections coming up are

• the primary election - August 19, 2014.
• the general election - November 4, 2014

There's also REAA election listed which will be October 7, 2014.

REAA stands for Regional Educational Attendance Area (REAA)   The Division of Elections website explains:

A Regional Educational Attendance Area (REAA) is an educational area that is established in an unorganized borough of the state under AS 14.08.031(a). The REAA elections are held annually on the first Tuesday in October and are administered by the Division of Elections. For more information about REAA boards or school districts in general, visit the Department of Education's web site.

Also, where 5% of the population speaks a language other than English, ballots should be available in those languages.  Here are the languages the Division of Elections lists:

Filipino (Tagalog)
Spanish (Español)
Central Yup'ik
Siberian Yupik
Inupiaq
Koyukon Athabascan
Gwich’in Athabascan

(Sorry, it appears this went up before it was finished.  I've deleted that post and replaced it with this one.)