Democrats’ election bill passes State Senate

Alaska Senate Bill 64, an overhaul of the state’s election laws, is racing through the Legislature, with provisions that could open the door to voter fraud, registration errors, and weakened oversight. The bill is now in House Finance after the Senate Democrat-led majority passed it.

While the bill is framed as a modernization effort to increase voter access and streamline registration, it invites trouble for Alaska’s already-troubled election system.

The bill expands the list of acceptable IDs to include tribal identification cards and to exclude previously accepted hunting and fishing licenses. It mandates that documents like utility bills or bank statements used as ID are valid within 60 days.

While the inclusion of tribal IDs is intended to improve access, there are widely varying standards among tribal-issued documents, with some prone to forgery or falsification. The 60-day document rule, if not strictly verified, could be exploited with falsified documents.

SB 64 defines voter residency as a place the voter intends to return to, creating a “rebuttable presumption” that the address on file is valid.

This looser standard invites ambiguity, especially for transient populations or individuals who spend significant time out-of-state. The subjective nature of a “reasonable and articulable plan” to return to a specific precinct makes enforcement difficult, allowing non-residents to vote unlawfully and skew voter rolls.

There is not a “fiscal note” on the bill at this time, but there are costs. The bill has added more staff in the way of “rural liaisons” to help rural voters.

The bill eliminates the witness signature for absentee ballots. Supporters like Sen. Bill Wielechowski say it reduces voting barriers. However, it strips away a key safeguard used to verify voter identity and intent, and it increases the risk of absentee ballot fraud or coercion, particularly in unsupervised environments, such as rural Alaska, where ballots often can be harvested from Post Office trash cans.

Under the new proposed law, absentee ballots received after election day may be counted if USPS tracking shows they were sent on or before election day, even without a postmark.

The bill creates a new system for absentee ballot tracking and curing. Voters can now fix issues such as missing signatures or ID mismatches. While well-intentioned, experts caution that a lax curing process might allow improperly cast ballots to be counted. The security of the digital tracking system is also vital—any breach could compromise sensitive voter information or election results.

The bill adds unlimited drop boxes and absentee ballots in perpetuity, which means after a person registers and qualifies they don’t have to ever request it again, so long as they vote at least once every four years or their ballot is not returned as undeliverable.

The Democrats added interesting language about “true source” funding. An Independent Expenditure group that gives money to a ballot initiative does not have to reveal the true source of its funds. The bill decreases transparency on campaign finance laws as applies to donors Outside Alaska. The Democrats have redefined what “true source” means, as it applies to ballot measures.

As SB 64 moves toward passage in the Democrat-led House, it’s unclear if the governor will veto the bill or allow it to go into law.

“Yes” votes in the Senate were Jesse Bjorkman, Claman, Forrest Dunbar, Cathy Giessel, Elvie Gray-Jackson, Lyman Hoffman, Scott Kawasaki, Jesse Kiehl, Kelly Merrick, Donny Olson, Bert Stedman, Gary Stevens, Loki Tobin, and Bill Wielechowski.

“No” votes on the bill were Sens. Mike Cronk, Shelley Hughes, James Kaufman, Robert Myers, Mike Shower and Rob Yundt, all Republicans in the minority.