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.
