Rep. Sarah Vance: Alaska’s election integrity crisis

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By REP. SARAH VANCE

In 2020, Alaska’s lieutenant governor and the Division of Elections assured the public that the state’s election was one of the most secure in its history.

However, soon after these claims were made, we learned that the personal data of 113,000 Alaskans — roughly 19% of voters — was breached in August of 2020 and circulated on the dark web. This revelation was a severe blow to public trust and has raised ongoing concerns about the security of our electoral system.

That same year, Ballot Measure 2, which introduced ranked choice voting to Alaska, passed by a razor-thin margin—less than 1%.

Since then, the issue of ranked-choice voting has not gone away. This year, we find ourselves again in a presidential election cycle, with Ballot Measure 2 now on the ballot to repeal RCV, and it’s likely to be determined by another incredibly narrow margin. 

So, let’s ask the tough questions: What impact did that data breach have on the 2020 election? And what about the current election, which has yet to be certified and will be finalized on Nov, 30?

We know that millions of dollars from outside groups, particularly from Washington D.C., were funneled into Alaska in 2020 and 2024 to influence the outcome of RCV. If millions of dollars were spent on advertising and pushing a specific agenda, isn’t it reasonable to ask whether those same outside forces might use the personal data circulating on the dark web to influence how people vote or manipulate the results?

Whether through social media manipulation, voter suppression, or other means, personal data can be a powerful tool for those with the resources to exploit it. If we’re being honest, these are uncomfortable questions that must be addressed.

As your State House representative, I’ve taken action. Last week, I sent a letter to the Alaska Division of Elections requesting a comprehensive audit of the ballots cast by the 113,000 Alaskans whose data was compromised in 2020. We need to know—were their votes manipulated, tampered with, or influenced by outside actors using this compromised data? Without a transparent, independent audit of these ballots, how can we trust the outcome of this election pending certification this November?

The situation is particularly troubling given Alaska’s history of tight elections. In a state where mere percentage points often decide elections, it wouldn’t take much for a small group with the right resources to influence or skew the results. The 1% margin by which Ballot Measure 2 passed in 2020 and the likelihood that the current election will be similarly close make this even more concerning.

Here’s the real question: How can we trust the outcome of any election in Alaska if we don’t address the potential for outside influence and data manipulation? Whether we’re talking about the 2020 election or the current one, we must demand accountability. The breach of personal data is just one part of the problem. The real question is whether those with vested interests have weaponized that data to influence the people’s will. This is an urgent issue that requires immediate attention and action from all of us.

We can debate whether we should hand-count ballots or use tabulators all day, but those are surface-level issues. The deeper problem is this: If our data can be accessed and misused, how can we be sure that our votes are genuinely our own? Without answers, we risk compromising the very foundation of our democratic process.

I believe that an audit of the 2024 election, specifically focusing on the ballots cast by the 113,000 Alaskans whose data was breached, is necessary. Until we know that their votes were not tampered with or influenced by bad actors, how can we be confident in future elections?

Let me be clear: What I’m calling for is transparency. I want the truth. Before any election outcome is certified, especially given the close margins and ongoing concerns, we need to ensure that the integrity of the process has not been compromised.

If no one asks these questions, we will never receive the answers we deserve. Without those answers, the integrity of our elections remains in jeopardy, and we will not be able to restore Alaskan’s faith in our election system.

Representative Sarah Vance of House District 6 is the current Chair of House Judiciary Committee and has sponsored several election integrity bills as a champion to provide accountability and reform. 

44 COMMENTS

  1. It is about time someone in our state government has addressed this elephant in the room. Thank you Sarah for this on point article. Alaskans are spitting mad at this fiasco we see before our eyes. It is so frustrating and maddening that the current Dunleavy administration have been silent as we watch this train wreck.

    • I still haven’t gotten over the absolute RANK CORRUPTION of Lisa M’s write-in senatorial elections.
      If elections cannot be trusted all we have left is the 2nd Amendment.
      Allegedly…

  2. The State legislature needs to pass a law to prevent outside money from being used to influence city, borough or state ballot initiatives.

  3. RCV is illegal and unconstitutional and the courts should have acknowledged that fact before it ever became a thing. The whole idea stinks to high heaven.

      • The single subject rule for initiatives.
        In 2020 the measure included not only RCV, but also a “dark money” component (which clearly does not work judging by how much money flowed in the state). It was a bundle deal to distract the voters from the real intent of the measure.
        These are two separate subjects, yet our supreme court was motivated to let it pass.
        Now we get BM1 which has 3 different issues, minimum wage, sick leave and employer gag order.

        You want proof? At the bottom of ballot measures is a separability disclaimer that makes it clear that a repeal of one section DOES NOT apply to other parts of the measure. With a single subject there should be no “other parts”!

    • LOL…white privilege? What do you mean, “at least once”…just how many times must a single vote count? Were you part of the left’s, “vote often” decree of several years ago? I pray you were being sarcastic…it is hard to tell in print.

  4. Dear AK Division of Elections.

    She is right to call for this comprehensive audit, transparency, and truth.

    WE want transparency and truth. Show your work.

  5. Sorry Sarah, your questions this late only serves to further delay a certification, I requested & sent out a White Paper that was ignored by many Candidates including you but you didn’t do anything before the election, with reasonable time to see what we all still don’t know, what is in the redacted ” Kelly Report” . Why, because the finger pointing would be disruptive to the election although now it still is distributing our so call lawfully secured election. What you will get now is crickets chirping but not jumping ! Good Luck….Liberty Ed

    • Rep Vance is a hypocrite

      Funded by dark money from an Arkansas ChristianNationalist group NACL she is just making noise to cover her poor representation of her district!

  6. The ONLY way to ensure integrity in the election system is to revert to voting in person and hand-counting of ballots. The so called “voting machines” could just as easily be called cheating machines. They are connected via internet to central processors; a fact that makes the entire process vulnerable to hacking. Consider the following simple solution.

    329,000 votes were cast in this 2024 election. One person can easily tabulate 3-ballots per minute with pencil and paper. 329,000 divided by 3-ballots/min = 109,667 minutes; or 1,827 man-hrs of ballot counting. 1.827 divided by 100 competent election workers across the state equal having our election certified 18-hours after the day of in-person voting. Also, this solution would require all absentee ballots must be received by 8pm on election day. The appearances of incompetence and corruption could be washed away with this simple, time-tested, trustworthy and strict plan.

  7. I was one of the 113.000 voters whose information was compromised. I got a letter long after it happened. I would definitely be interested in a audit !

  8. How many of the 113,000 registered voters who suffered from the 2020 data breach cast a vote that year or continue to vote by mail to this day? This question applies to both state and Anchorage municipal elections.

    “Without answers, we risk compromising the very foundation of our democratic process.”

    This is the heart of the problem. Our current election systems have been compromised by this data breach and other vectors. The foundation already has multiple large cracks which are more than evident. The breach of 2020 happened before the state/federal election that year and is one of the most obvious and visible modes of failure.

    Information that was available to the 2020 hackers included the signatures of individual registered voters. This is especially troubling as the only form of security required for mail in and drop box ballots to be accepted is a signature. 2020 Alaska state elections were essentially all mail in or drop box ballots, meaning no voter presence or identification other than a signature was required.

    The municipality of Anchorage still uses signatures as the only form of security necessary to get a ballot into the system and be counted. The municipality of Anchorage uses the state voter rolls which were hacked, to mail out unsolicited ballots. If a bad guy or gal has a ballot mailed to them by requesting one from the state or receives one automatically from the municipality and they have an image of that person’s signature, they have a valid vote by our current security standards.

    In the 2022 municipal election the state of Alaska had registered voters from every state in the union and over 50 other countries on the voter rolls.

    How many of the 113,000 voted by mail?

  9. Ordinarily, I might read this column and dismiss it as a politician asking questions for which there are no meaningful answers. It might be viewed as noise.

    However, when taking a step back and considering that extremely well-financed outside interests created, sponsored, supported, enacted and viciously defended RCV, Representative Vance may be on to something. This was no small effort and there was nothing “grass-roots” about it. Folks generally don’t spend tens of millions of dollars without a thought of achieving specific goals. Alaska needs to make a legitimate effort to understand who might have acquired the voter data and how that data may have been exploited.

  10. Small wonder Dunleavy has been passed over by Trump. When it came to stand up for Election Integrity Dunleavy remained in his chair. When a strong voice was needed to offset the millions of advertising dollars being spent in favor of RCV, Dunleavy until the very end, remained silent. If there was one issue Trump made his primary mission in the last election, it was election integrity. Why would you want someone on your team that failed horribly in his own State where he held all the means to ensure a fair election.

  11. Vance is suddenly concerned with “election integrity” because she noticed her lead is narrowing. She will probably win, but if she loses, she wants to be able to blame someone besides herself.

  12. The Alaskan judiciary is also an accomplice to this election corruption, for they have violated statutory and constitutional law by permitting multiple topics on citizen initiatives. What they call “constitutional” law is merely their own left/Democratic political bias, masquerading as statesmanship. The GOVERNOR could have stopped this rape of justice through the power granted to him in Art. 3, Sec. 16, and should not escape a share of the blame. Add the state senate, which refused to impeach the black-robed judicial imposters, who really would be better dressed as red-nosed clowns with orange hair and 2-foot long shoes.

  13. I absolutely agree and support this! Also, excluding the fiasco of RCV, why does it take weeks to get our election results? I say nay to the remoteness of some of the precincts. We could have had them delivered by dogsled and HAND COUNTED long ago. I have voted in this state for 60 years and am disillusioned by the recent integrity of our elections! It’s past time for accountability for the Division of Elections!!

  14. Voter rolls. Without question, it would start with cleaning up voter rolls. We need to ditch the ERIC system like yesterday. Any resistance to cleaning up voter rolls is a strong indicator that cheating is going on. Legislators can grandstand all they want. Until they can show some concrete results, they have nothing.

  15. I believe the next election for governor, this is going to be a big issue. The current governor and lt. governor dropped the ball big time on this issue. I like Dunleavy, but I want my vote to count.

  16. Thank you. We demanded an audit after RCV passed and the Lt Governor later reported that it was accomplished without evidence of fraud but we were never advised how it was accomplished. I don’t trust that an adequate audit was done if it was done at all. We are still using the same vote tabulators which have proven to be unsafe. Voter Id, Paper ballots, hand counted is the only way forward.

  17. How about just firing the whole bunch at the division of elections and hiring some competent folks . Back in the sixties it took one day to count votes . Now with hundreds employed , it takes weeks . Something is haywire

  18. I think that the “ money machine “ from lower 48 controls our elections up here . When Begich ran several years ago for US Senate , over $200 was spent for every vote cast in Ak . Previous record for US Senator was $7 per vote . I knew at that time how easy it was to control our elections in Ak . Dark money from both sides just pours into state . All these slick ads on TV are funded from outside the state . Us Alaskans really have no vote or say so . Ak GOP knows this and yet does nothing , they are part of the problem .

  19. SB 39 Sponsor Statement “Ballot Custody/Tampering; Voter Reg; Mail” SB 39 and other bills have been introduced to strengthen and correct voter problem issues.

    Commissioner Tshibaka’s public documented report on elections was given to the Governor, Lt. Governor and/or Attorney General without redactions. Was the election problems identified in the public documented report get corrected by the Lt. Governor?

    Sponsor Statement for SB 39 by Senator Shower – “I began working on election issues in 2018…” Let’s hope Senator Shower and others are put on committees for the 2025 Legislative session.

  20. Fact. Rep. Vance has been very concerned about election integrity all along. If you had been follow her committee meetings you would know that, but the question to you is, are you more interested in results, or the truth

  21. The state of Alaska needs to hire the couple out of Texas , Katheryn Engebretson and Jim ( can’t remember his last name ) . They did all the work on 2000 Mules . That is their forte , election fraud .

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