After the Division of Elections conducted its annual clean-up of Alaska’s voter rolls at the end of February, there are 587,277 voters in Alaska. Before the Feb. 29 data purge, 590,778 voters were on the rolls at the Division of Elections.
It’s a process the state division goes through every year after it sends out two required notices to voters who haven’t voted for four years or who have not contacted the division.
Purging means the voters go into inactive status and do not appear on any voter rolls in coming elections. Later, the voters are completely removed if they don’t make themselves known.
If a voter is in an inactive purge status, they can cast a questioned ballot which is reviewed by the questioned board and their ballot is counted to fullest extent possible based on the residence address/house district assignment they provided on the questioned envelope and the address/house direct assignment we have in the voter registration system. They then are put back into an active status.
In the most recent report 141,240 registered Alaska voters are Republicans, at 24%; 74,769, or 12.73%, are Democrat; Undeclared (those who won’t say) total 258,489, 44%; and Nonpartisans are 82,489, 14%.
It’s an imperfect process, but the division is following state and federal laws that err on the side of not mistakenly removing a legitimate voter. Still, it leaves tens of thousands of names on the list, when mathematically, it doesn’t compute with the number of adults in Alaska.
The U.S. Census says there are an estimated 733,406 residents of Alaska. Of those, 24% (176,017) are under the age of 18, thus ineligible to vote. That leaves a voting age population of about 557,000, if you rule out the ineligible sex felons and noncitizens. (If you have been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude or are on probation or parole for the same crime, you are not eligible to vote until the Department of Corrections gives you an unconditional discharge.)
In November of 2022, turnout was 267,047.
Last year during the annual list maintenance process, the Division of Election purged 15,916 voters from the rolls; the purged numbers vary year to year, as the division tries to keep the list up to date, something that is required by state and federal laws that also limit how quickly the division can remove voters from the list.
The division conducts the main list maintenance process from December through February and at other times throughout the year. It is a process required by state and federal laws, which limit the division’s ability to remove voters from the voter list.
Having too many on the rolls is partly due to people applying for Permanent Fund dividends, who are automatically registered to vote unless they opt out, and the ease of registering to vote when they get a driver’s license, the division says. Alaska voters passed a ballot initiative that automatically registers people to vote when they apply and are qualified for a dividend.
“If someone becomes registered but does not vote and does not contact the division, it can take at least eight years and the return of undeliverable mail to remove them from the voter list. Alaska’s list maintenance law requires more steps to remove a voter than the federal list maintenance law, the National Voter Registration Act,” the division says.
Also, military members may register to vote and vote in Alaska elections even if they are stationed overseas and do not plan to return to Alaska. As long as they don’t register or vote in another state, they can be Alaska voters; many do maintain that residency in order to receive and Alaska Permanent Fund dividend.
