When Alaskans in 2016 voted in favor of automatic voter registration for anyone who registers for an Alaska Permanent Fund dividend, little did they know they were opening up a huge loophole that non-citizens can squeeze through in order to vote.
To file for a Permanent Fund dividend, one does not actually need to get approved for that dividend, but can get the voter I.D. as a side benefit. The Permanent Fund Division can reject an application for any number of reasons, mostly due to residency requirement. But in the meantime, anyone who simply applies will be mailed a voter I.D. card if they are not already a registered voter.
To vote in Alaska you must be a U.S. citizen, an Alaska resident, 18 years of age by Election Day, not registered in another state, and not convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude (unless voting rights were restored.) You also need to be registered before the various deadlines each election.
The Permanent Fund dividend deadline of March 31 makes it a certainty that all applicants will have that I.D. well before the primary election deadline.
The Division of Elections has not fixed this loophole since it went into effect in 2018. For the past six years, anyone who gets a PFD and gets a voter registration card is supposed to turn it in voluntarily if they aren’t eligible to vote.
“Why did I receive a voter registration card if I am not a U.S. Citizen?” the Division of Elections asks on its website. The answers it gives are:
“When you fill out your PFD, you are automatically registered to vote. If you are not a U.S. Citizen, contact the Division of Elections so they can cancel your voter registration.”
“You may have marked a DMV or PFD form indicating you are a citizen when you are not. Be sure to contact the Division of Elections to cancel your voter registration if you are registered to vote and are not a U.S. Citizen.”
In other words, people who come to Alaska legally or illegally, and even people from other states who might use an Alaska address, can apply for the dividend, get the voter I.D. card, and are expected to do the honorable thing and return it.
To be eligible for an Alaska Permanent Fund dividend, you don’t actually have to be a citizen of the U.S. You can be someone living in the U.S. lawfully, someone who is a refugee, or who has been granted asylum.
But by the time an application for a dividend is adjudicated, the voter registration card is already in the hands of the applicant because this is an automatic process that happens at the time the application is submitted. To vote in Alaska, one must only show that voter identification card.
The chances of being caught are negligible. Only a handful of people have been charged with voter fraud over the past decade.
What makes it even easier is that to get a State of Alaska I.D., you don’t have to be a citizen of the U.S. You can get a photo identification by providing things like:
- A foreign passport with appropriate immigration status forms issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.
- A resident alien, temporary resident alien, or employment work authorization document issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.
- An Alaska instruction permit or Alaska State Identification card.
- Certificate of Citizenship, Naturalization, or Birth Abroad.
Getting a state identification makes it even more likely that someone will apply for a dividend, whether or not they are eligible. They may do so unwittingly, hoping for the best, and then the voter registration card arrives in the mail for them and they are added to the voter rolls. They start getting mailers and text messages from candidates and their ballots may get voted, even without their knowledge.
According to the American Immigration Council, there are 60,784 immigrants (foreign-born individuals) comprised 8% of the population; that includes 30,662 women, 25,905 men as of 2018. Six years later, that number may be higher, considering the sieve that is the open southern border of the United States under the Biden Administration.
The number of noncitizens voting illegally in Alaska is not known, and appears to be of little interest to the lieutenant governor, who is in charge of elections.
In most state races, the illegal votes won’t end up making a difference. But in some cases, one illegal vote can make a difference. In 2018, Bart LeBon won for House by just one vote. In 2006, Rep. Bryce Edgmon came into office after winning a coin toss against incumbent Rep. Carl Moses, after the two had tied. Anchorage’s Rep. Tom McKay won by just 7 votes in 2022.
The Permanent Fund Division says, “When considering an alien status for PFD eligibility, the term “lawfully admitted for permanent residence” means that an alien must be legally present in Alaska.”
This matters because for many immigrants, a $1,500 per family member dividend can be a big boost to the family standard of living, and so many will be motivated to apply for dividends, regardless of whether they are actually able to get one.
The issue has now been a loophole in Alaska’s election integrity process for the entire Dunleavy Administration. Former Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer didn’t fix it, and neither has Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who is now running for Congress — and overseeing the elections.
The state has also been registering non citizens to vote wgen they sign up for food stamps. WAY TO GO DUNLEAVY.
Why, exactly, do you believe Dunleavy is responsible?
Dunleavy should direct his lieutenant governor to clear up the myriad problems within Alaska elections. It is her job and she should be instructed to do it! If he refuses, then this becomes his problem.
Dahlstrom should introduce legislation to ensure that those who are being sent voter ID cards are actually citizens. Otherwise, the Division of election is actually breaking the law. The voter initiative that passed in 2016 has put the division in the position of violating the Alaska Constitution, which says: “Every citizen of the United States who is at least eighteen years of age, who meets registration residency requirements which may be prescribed by law, and who is qualified to vote under this article, may vote in any state or local election. A voter shall have been, immediately preceding the election, a thirty day resident of the election district in which he seeks to vote, except that for purposes of voting for President and Vice President of the United States other residency requirements may be prescribed by law. Additional voting qualifications may be prescribed by law for bond issue elections of political subdivisions.”
No voter initiative has the power to override the Alaska Constitution. Dahlstrom needs to fix this.
The Cowardly Lion could have, and should have told Nancy to do her job.
As alleged leader of the alleged GOP, he should have made electoral integrity a priority for his second term. And stood on Nancy’s desk until she actually did something.
But the Cowardly Lion did what he does best. Nothing.
It’s Dahlstrom – she’s done nothing as Lt. Gov. her nickname at corrections was do nothing Dahlstrom. Zzzz
Nancy had one job: clean up elections. She didn’t do it!
Dunleavy isn’t the one who did that, contact your state legislature during the time of Walker. You can thank the democrats for making all things like illegal voting possible.
Did Nancy Dahlstrom ever show up for work?
What a loser.
Where the h—is Dahlstrom? Is this intentional?
Nancy Dahlstrom hasn’t done her job yet, She doesn’t know what she is doing and that is apparent in this one ion Division of Elections and the job with Corrections. She hopes the Republicans will look the other way and give her another job but I got news for her. No, she won’t be elected to the Congresswoman position.
Dahlstrom has had two and a half years to fix this mess or at least start the process of fixing it. She has not championed election integrity even once, other than just regurgitating someone else’s talking points. She is lazy and a mental cripple who just stands there at ribbon cuttings. Not a single original thought.
This is why we have far too many people registered to vote in Alaska. Alaska has only about 555,000 people who would possibly be eligible to vote (over age of 18) but we have 605,000 eligible voters.
We get the government we deserve, Alaska.
Crooked, corrupt, crony politics.
Never vote for Nancy.
Dunleavy is a RINO’s.
Pray Begich isn’t going to be a Murkowski, Sullivan type UniParty lackey.
Integrity!–that’s a hell of a notion, Clubster! It’s right up there with goodness, truth, and justice.
NBIII in congress and a lite gov who takes the job seriously.
Is that asking too much?
Begich isn’t a savior – you and the rest of his sycophants are acting like he’s the greatest conservative of all time.
Begich will have ZERO to say, as a federal legislator, what happens with Alaska state voting procedures.
With the exception of Rep Eastman and a few others the rest of the AK GOP are a bunch of UniParty lackeys.
The same “conservatives” who’ve voted for Lisa M for the last 20 years – are the ones to blame.
Keep voting for the RINO’s dummies…
And what candidate for the US house will be getting your vote?
You obviously know Nick by name quite well, not anything about who he is though.
So what is your solution?
donewithit: no one is saying he is a savior. he is better than dahlstrom who in fact is a RINO and bought politician, just like Dunleavy. if you want conservative values in DC, vote for Nick Begich. We can’t afford mary peltola and nancy is only looking out for herself.
Sounds like Lisa & nick to me to even think rank choice & my second choice is clown rigged stuff. Only win rigged with a news crew we shall see in the end together who was right a men. GOD is watching his oath takers & all who go along it is written
We’ve lost our country!
We’ve lost sanity to the lawyers.
That’s BS
How do we change it?
By a major event like a reset.
Looks like it’s time for Lt Gov Nancy Dahlstrom to request every voter, without proof of citizenship on file, provide a proof of citizenship to maintain their registration.
This problem contributes to 159,000 Alaska voters not having cast a ballot in any of the last 4 general elections.
There are no such thing as legal “loopholes”. Their could be oversights, mistakes or even an intent to achieve otherwise unpopular goals by adding in procedures in a law or regulation that achieve said unspoken goal. Of course the head of the Division of Elections doesn’t care, the more registrations and ballots out into the public the better.
Purging non-citizens would increase voter confidence in the election process. Even if the non-citizens never vote, they reduce percentage turnout by inflating the registered voter population.
Was this really unintentional?
Look back at who sponsored that nonsense, there you will find your answer. And the stupid people that vote for that and the rank choice bs.
So let’s let the whole world vote.
Let’s vote to abolish, taxes
Let’s make 8 billion people in the world, Alaskans and let them all vote.
We tried to close the loophole in the voter registration bill in January.
On January 31st, we put forward Amendment #3 to House Bill 129 to require citizenship verification before sending a person a voter ID card.
At the time, we were told that citizenship verification was too controversial, and that it might kill the bill, so 21 Republicans joined Democrats in killing the amendment.
The vote is shown here: https://www.akleg.gov/PDF/33/A/HB0129-H003.PDF
If we aren’t even willing to verify a person’s citizenship before handing them a ballot, can we really claim to have election integrity in Alaska?
HB129 was another example of an election integrity bill that wasn’t. The celebration when it passed the house was unmerited.
Thanks for your continued efforts, David. I appreciate it.
Hard to believe Republicans would not support something as common sense as ensuring we only let US citizens vote.
This should be an issue in the coming elections. Those who want the status quo need to be removed- un- elected.
‘House Bill 129: https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Bill/Detail/33?Root=HB%20129#tab3_4
Name the Republicans!
David Eastman was the only “yea” vote. Everyone else voted “nay”, including all other Republicans.
‘https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Journal/Pages/33?Chamber=H&Bill=HB%20129&Page=01404#1404
I always appreciate it when you take the time to fill in some details here, Rep. Eastman.
How many people here remember voting for this in 2016? Our “elections” are broken and passage of laws to ensure they remain that way has been going on a long time.
This will get you started on the who and why. The natives are cited as the lead, but someone planted the seed. I’ll let you decide.
‘https://www.adn.com/commentary/article/linking-voter-registration-pfd-would-create-fundamental-change/2015/08/03/
For some reason the governor and lt. governor don’t seem to care about our election security.
the only thing the gov and lieutenant gov care about are their own political careers
For the GOP and Dunleavy apologists:
Why has the AKGOP sat on their backsides in this?
Save the effort, I’ll answer for you. Because the AKGOP, as a whole, are feckless and useless.
RINO’s and UniParty members for the most part.
Wake up!
alaska republican party does nothing but support self serving politicians from murkowski, sen sullivan, gov dunleavy and now dahlstrom. the saying: you reap what you sow. well, we have nothing but RINOs representing us.
Same division of elections that printed over 800,000 ballots for a total population of 738,000 people. One third of which are underage and can’t vote. The whole voting system is a scam. That’s why after 2020 I took myself off the voter rolls. Im not going to waste my time when election rigging is the norm.
Those extra ballots were for dead people.
If you are not engaged and don’t vote, don’t complain. I for one, don’t want to hear it. You are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
It’s a lovely gesture that must have made you feel good. Morally superior, even.
But it does little to nothing to actually resolve issues. It comes across more as a tantrum.
A vote cast for a third party like Joe Miller is a protest vote that has meaning. Even when Joe has zero chance of winning.
Pouting is a de facto support for the system you say is so flawed.
Yes, he’s all AMPed up, Avenger; however, the system is fixed, and nothing has changed since the last election or the election before that! If it’ll make the public-schooled electorate–the “educated” dummies–feel like they are doing their patriotic duty, I hope that they get out and vote–hell, at least three or four times if they’re really steamed up about some “existential threat.” But the more “enlightened” parochial-schooled will thumb through the Bible looking for a passage that they can hang their souls on. As a realist, Avenger, you might consider how you can cut a deal for yourself with the elected thieves when this election is over.
AMP; You have absolutely no right to complain about government if you don’t vote 😉
First of all maybe everyone needs to know the history. This was pushed by our DC delegation and the law needs to change so maybe get on them for not doing so!
Everything wrong with elections is not always
DOE!
Our DC delegation had nothing to do with our ballot initiative in 2016. That was on the voters and the dark money that pushed the ballot measure. This is not about RCV, Judy. It’s about sending everyone voter ID cards without any proof they are even citizens. Come on, pay attention. Focus. Focus.
Sounds like our Senators/House representatives have let the state down again.
Sounds like our Senators/House representatives have let the state down again. Why were they allowed the PFD if they didn’t meet the requirement for citizenship?
This is criminal. Allowing non citizen invaders the right to vote? Our country is fast becoming the laughingstock of the world. What the heck is controversial about verifying citizenship? There should be verification of identification also! Only legal, living, residents should vote. This is all about the destruction of our republic and I cannot believe any legislator with half a brain would buy the lame excuse Rep Eastman mentions above.
It’s all intentional and the family secret to allow non-American citizen to vote in federal/state/local elections to save democracy…aka mob rule.
not sure what more evidence alaskans need to know nancy dahlstrom will be a terrible congresswoman just like she’s been a terrible lieutenant governor. not sure what dunleavy was thinking by endorsing her.
will be voting for nick begich
It’s way more convenient to just let someone vote for you. And contribute a political donation in your name. The post office has to handle mail-in ballots anyway, can’t they just fill them out?
Old Nancy Dahlstrom can’t be bothered by things like election integrity, voter fraud, RCV, or even doing her job as head of elections in Alaska. That’s because she’s too busy trying to find ways to gain a congressional seat…….even though most Alaskans can’t stand her. If you met Dahlstrom and asked her to inquire about something, it’s like talking to a three year old. She doesn’t do anything for Alaskans. An empty dress with empty promises.
Brystole,
You have stated exactly what others in the state legislature have told me about Nancy Dahlstrom.
Maybe you are a legislator?
Where are all these state attorneys that are supposed to be watching out for Alaskan citizens.?? Does everything we do have to be screwed up by sheer bureaucratic incompetence??? Hell we got $80 billion in an investment account and we can’t even drive down these rough ass roads without ripping our vehicles in half. But by god a bunch of dope smoking welfare leaches can go buy a new flat screan tv from scum mart.
Just one more loophole to give a non-citizen a ballot. In the lower 48 automatic voter registration paired with driver’s licenses was pushed as a more efficient and time saving way to get people registered to vote. People went along with that only to find that the next “big idea” was to give illegal aliens driver’s licenses. So Pennsylvania just got through purging its roles of some 6 or 9 million illegal alien voters and also a large number of dead people and people who had moved out of state. Note that these had voted in 2020. It was done by a governor’s decree. Would that work here? Or would Scott Kendall sue on behalf of the disenfranchised dead people?
Its a good thing Jay Valentine of Omega4America has the quantum tech expertise up and operating. He is in a 3-month crunch time now and says no state can make any changes to voter roles now. He set up the system to find fraud for ebay and multiple insurance companies. Since 2020 he has compared property rolls with voter rolls to find the NGO locations like hotels, Walmart, buildings without bedrooms or apt #s. This us where the ballots are sent and then filled out by criminal leftists. In every swing state, like Mich or Wisconsin, there are 500,000 or more invalid ballots on the roll. But a person cannot defeat the unlawful vote one by one. They show the persons in authority a picture of that building and address the problem and then the next step to prosecute. The ballots are not getting sent out either.
Registering Illegals, Dead Voters and Move Aways, Mail in Ballots and Rank Choice Voting are just some of the ways they cheat. It’s not incompetence – IT’S BY DESIGN ! This is how these traitors get elected and that’s why we are constantly wondering why these elected jerks never quite seem to be representing us. If they make it to the ballot, they are sold out to some special interest. No Dahlstrom, no Petola, no to Strongly Commited to Ukraine Dan Sullivan (when it comes his turn), and fire Murkowski the first chance that comes along. They DO NOT represent the citizens of Alaska.
And Gabrielle LeDouxe’s (sp?) Voter Fraud indictment regarding her 2018 election still has not been brought to trial!! Yes it all smells a little off.
Simple…if the would-be voter can’t speak English, then they are not a citizen. Perhaps we need to ask for birth certificate before letting people get on welfare programs or voter registration or PFD.
It makes people mad, but it’s true. This is the government Alaska wants. We have worked damn hard to get here.
Failure to vet candidates, failure to participate in the grass roots, blind cheerleading for someone with a letter you like without doing a deep dive on them, failure to make our voices heard in the selection process, failure to raise hell when the government exceeds its authority, the list is endless.
At its root is right of center laziness
On Friday I went to vote and was asked for my voter ID . I said how about my drivers license also. I did wonder why I got a new voter ID recently in the mail ….. ? They need to ask for DL !
‘https://www.ktoo.org/2016/01/14/123308/
The congressional seat is valuable for the individual who obtains it for personal profit from the donations, bribes and insider stock trades provided by the special interests the candidate serves. No Congressman writes legislation, they are presented ready made bills and instructed how to vote. The atta boy treats are awarded on the basis of following instructions. The fake fighting, passionate principles and theatrics demonstrated by congress are just theatrics, bread and circus shows for the public.
Nice Job, Suzanne. Although not so eloquently, we discussed this exact problem at the Republican Women of the Kenai meeting, which is held on the second Thursday of each month. If anyone would like to attend a meeting, they can find the group on FaceBook and get more information there.
“What makes it even easier is that to get a State of Alaska I.D., you don’t have to be a citizen of the U.S. You can get a photo identification by providing things like:”
The last entries on this list are:
Certificate of Citizenship, Naturalization and Birth Abroad.
All of the above named documents indicated that the bearer IS A US CITIZEN and eligible to vote in any election!
A certificate of Citizenship is issued to confirm an individual’s US citizenship. A Birth abroad certificate is issued when a person was born outside the US to US parents, like military service members serving abroad. A Certificate of Naturalization is issued to an individual, who has applied and received US citizenship via the Naturalization process.
All of these documents a legitimate means of proof of US citizenship and should not be included on this listing.
Ya, and its interesting that it’s one party who is behind all these illegal shananigans that are taking place Nation wide, the Democrats don’t want free , fair , and legal elections , they just voted against voter ID a week or so ago, that pretty much proves beyond ALL doubt they are corrpt as hell, and ANYONE who can’t see what’s going on is either Corrupt as hell, or a total And complete idiot! This nonsense first started back when Bill Clinton was president, and when Obama got in he pretty much energized this movement Nationally, the Dems can’t win a free and fair election in this Country, so their willing to circumvent and cheat anyway possible now to do it . In all honesty, We’re no better then Venezuela in many States in this Country now! That’s exactly why they need early voting, and it takes so long to count the votes, they need to know how many votes they have to come up with to win. No one with a brain really believes Joe Biden got 81 million legal votes in 2020. But the guys who circumvent the elections and regurgitate this nonsense relentlessly over and over again!
Dahlstrom is responsible for fixing election problems but we still have voter tabulation computers that she must this is ok. It is not. I am going to vote first Begich. Paper ballots hand counted is what we must demand.
For anyone curious about how this crap is costing the state and “benefits” we’re getting from it, here is the state’s site: ‘https://www.elections.alaska.gov/research/statistics/#pfdavrstats
PFD Automatic Voter Registration
Mailed Notices Opt-Outs Registered
PFD Year Valid Applications Potential New Voters Existing Voters1 Ambiguous Voters Total Potential New Voters Existing Voters2 Total New Voters Existing Voters3 New Voters Who Voted4 Print and Mail Costs Total Annual Cost
2023 394,872 11,097 68,161 282 79,540 2,023 5,529 7,552 9,171 375,934 0 $101,494.36 $228,220.62
2022 395,109 10,406 71,090 199 81,695 1,973 5,696 7,669 8,491 374,000 1,442 $93,482.27 $178,158.23
2021 388,030 9,222 67,317 503 77,042 2,152 6,243 8,395 7,076 368,766 727 $83,116.26 $195,448.37
2020 395,314 16,611 80,113 452 97,176 3,011 7,061 10,072 13,608 368,516 4,689 $120,792.44 $225,456.89
2019 404,793 22,754 78,206 816 101,776 4,979 9,965 14,944 17,868 330,674 5,067 $117,062.49 $280,730.53
2018 359,461 35,690 101,652 2,454 139,796 5,322 9,641 14,963 31,027 309,902 9,178 $164,995.29 $261,796.21
2017 76,171 25,451 50,571 149 76,171 9,794 21,482 31,276 15,688 11,107 3,710 $61,148.71 $140,931.88
This is one of the few duties that fall squarely in the lap of the Lt. Governor to remedy. Not once have we heard Dahlstrom weigh in on voter integrity in a meaningful way, to include bringing this little jewel to the public’s attention. She wants to ride on her laurels as a former State Representative, but while she’s warming the bench in Juneau, she’s done nothing to protect this state from those who would upend it. Now she wants us to send her to DC where she can again operate out of the limelight as do the Juneau legislature, outside our reach until something is done which can’t be taken back.
A child can see its all about the accomplishments to we the people for oath takers list nicks accomplishments & we can go from there. I have my teams list Nancy Dahlstrom is a doer.
Everyone needs to be writing a letter to Dahlstrom to ask her what she is going to do to fix this situation. We keep giving her passes when we don’t confront her about her lack of action.
“Immigration courts in Massachusetts are on pace to have a record number of deportation filings
As thousands of migrants who fled violence and instability in their home countries face an unsettled future in Massachusetts, federal immigration authorities are on pace to file a record number of deportation cases this fiscal year, according to an immigration research center.
Through the first nine months of the 2024 federal fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, the US Department of Homeland Security filed more than 44,000 new deportation cases in Massachusetts immigration courts. At the current pace, the total number of filings in the state by the end of the fiscal year could reach almost 59,000.” From the Boston Globe