By JOHN DANIEL DAVIDSON / THE FEDERALIST
Next month, Alaskans will vote in a special primary election for the state’s single congressional seat, left vacant by the death of Republican Rep. Don Young in March. Young, the longest-serving Republican in the history of the U.S. House, was Alaska’s sole congressman for 49 years, so the election to replace him is in some ways an historic event for the state.
But it’s also historic in another way: it will be Alaska’s first ever statewide mail-in primary election. That is, there will be no in-person voting at all. Every single voter on the state’s bloated and error-riddled voter rolls was automatically mailed a blank ballot.
What’s more, there will be no verification requirements for these mail-in ballots. Voters will simply need to fill out their ballot and have a witness observe them sign the envelope. The state’s Division of Election has explicitly said it will not verify the authenticity of the signatures on the ballots.
Normally, to vote by mail in Alaska you have to submit an absentee ballot application ahead of time, which includes a signature that can be used to verify the signature on the completed ballot. But not for this special mail-in election, which is already a chaotic and confusing mess, with 48 names on the primary ballot and a new ranked-choice voting process in place that will send the top four vote-getters from the primary to the in-person general special election in August (which is on the same day as the regular statewide primary election for the November midterms).
By any measure, Alaska’s special election is a mess. But why should the rest of the country care? Because Alaska’s insane statewide mail-in election is a template for how the left wants to run elections nationwide. Democrats and left-wing activists would love nothing more than to hold elections entirely by mail with as few safeguards in place to prevent ballot fraud.
Indeed, Alaska presents a unique and in some ways ideal test case for the left. For one thing, Alaska’s voter rolls are a mess. As of 2020, voter registration was 118 percent of the estimated vote age population, meaning there were more registered voters than actual people who could vote (this problem is getting worse in Alaska; in 2018 it was only 103 percent). Making matters worse is a 2016 Alaska law that automatically registers residents to vote when they submit an application for the state’s Permanent Fund dividend.
In exchange for voting in this loony election process Alaskans deserve everything they are about to get….good and hard.
This is Scott Kendall’s big wet dream. Straight across the board election fraud. No holds barred.
The rest of the nation is buckling down with election integrity laws and Alaska is inviting a free for all for Democrats.
@Julia,
Wouldn’t Scott Kendall’s BWD appease many of the Lefty, privileged White Women who support abortion?
I am a big fan of in person voting. Show photo ID, and show up in person. A person can request an absentee ballot, but for a reason.
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Not a fan of “more people voting.” I am a fan of more informed and more active voters. When ballots just show up, unrequested, people who have absolutely no idea about politics vote. And, the reasons why they are choosing a candidate has nothing to do with what/who that candidate is. It turns the election from a choice of the best candidate to who has the slickest advertising.
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I would rather have a 5% turnout rate but each and every person who voted has done their research and knows exactly why they are choosing a candidate. Instead, there is a push to get 100% voter turnout, even though most of the people could care less about anything other than President.
The State of Alaska should require ALL voters to register again. 90% of them could do it in 10 minutes online and the rest could be sent cards to fill out and return to the state in the mail. This idiocy is totally unnecessary and is making the vote a farce.
Ballot Harvesting is how we ended up with Rank-Choice Voting.
This type of voting will make a mockery of our Democracy!
Rank-Choice was the work of Murkowski, to get re-elected the only was she could have and Our State is going to pay the price for this in the coming years.
“Aayykchually this is good for voting because it allows more people to vote.”
-Frank Rast
(Probably)
In Juneau, our mail in ballots go to a PO box. From there they go to the secret election building on the outskirts of town manned by…well, few know. Once there, I imagine they’re fed through a preprogrammed Dominion computer. What could go wrong?
Well, no one else is looking out for the voting rights of the moved, missing, comatose, and deceased.
The reason it is a mess is DUNLEAVY_MEYER.
They are running the election and do not care.
I know of family and kids that are no longer in state that received ballots. Some of them haven’t been in Alaska for 5 years. This should immediately be stopped and done in-person with ID!
Why haven’t you turned their names in to the Division of Elections, then? I wonder: does this “personal knowledge” of potential election fraud swell from the bosom of your family?
It’s the #1 reason one can deduce for your “personal knowledge.” Coupled with your obvious lack of any self-congratulatory boasting for thwarting the possibility of voter fraud by turning in the fraudulent ballot-holders, the most obvious conclusion any reasonable person can make is this:
Your relatives may very well commit voter fraud unless you turn them in to the authorities.
Nasty. I have a few kids, born but who haven’t lived here in years. I’m STILL getting voter stuff after over 12 years in one case. They didn’t even apply for dividends even when they were eligible! They just think the state is re…uh…stupid, and we’re in an experiment of sorts to see how bad it is.
They don’t vote here, and are registered elsewhere, I don’t vote there stuff, but yeah. Alaska’s vote system is bad af. More; may follow up tomorrow. There is no doubt we had election fornification in 2020. I called it out, WHILE voting, on precinct day in August, and again in November. And since to the election division.
Lt. Gov is horrible but we knew that- why Dunleavy chose him idk.
The so-called prominent Republicans in Fairbanks don’t care and won’t discuss it. This state’s a s-show anymore. Fairbanks Republicans are a sorry buncha sops. I still vote, but idk why.
Wants to? The tense is wrong. Has.
Mr. Davidson, you said it: “By any measure, Alaska’s special election is a mess. But why should the rest of the country care? Because Alaska’s insane statewide mail-in election is a template for how the left wants to run elections nationwide. Democrats and left-wing activists would love nothing more than to hold elections entirely by mail with as few safeguards in place to prevent ballot fraud.”
This may be a template “for how the left wants to run elections nationwide,” but it “is” a Republican administration that is conducting “this” election! Also, if the voter rolls are bloated, why hasn’t the Republican lieutenant governor purged them? It is the lieutenant governor’s responsibility to supervise the state’s division of elections!
You might want to consider how to harness the Republicans in the state house and senate: they comprise the majority in each chamber! If this election is such a mess–and it certainly seems that way to me too–shouldn’t we be cleaning up the system since we “conservatives” are in charge?
Exactly. See my comment above if it passes moderation – idk if that’s common, it isn’t vulgar, but who knows. It’s such an utter crap mess. The Republicans don’t care, at least here – even the “good” ones. And I like(d) them as individuals. There’s more to the story, but writing does little it appears.
Face it, commie scum: mail-in voting is a sham, a fraud, and an all-around terrible idea. It literally demands a lack of transparency and a needless chain of intermediaries, inviting corruption and voting fraud. And that is why you commies love it so much — because with your complete lack of morals, scruples and principles, you KNOW that you can and WILL cheat and dishonestly use it to your advantage.
This statement is WRONG: ||| What’s more, there will be no verification requirements for these mail-in ballots. ||||
The state special mail-in ballot requires:
1. Voter Signature
2. One Voter Identifier: Voter No, Date of Birth, Last 4 of SSN
3. Witness Signature
4. Witness Date:
5. Witness Location:
Without proper information, your ballot will not be counted.
Anyone can sign it and witness it themselves by signing someone’s name. No one is checking signatures. There is no official who will look at your identification and do any verification. No one in the Division of Elections is going to look at your birthdate or last four of your social or your voter id. This election is hackable pure and simple.
But the signatures will not be checked for validity against signatures already on file
Automatic voter registration leapfrogs over the Constitional right to freedom of association. One may be an American and choose not to have anything, at all, to do with the highly corrupt election processes and people. This automatically steps on individuals’ rights to be free to choose to associate with electioneering or not. Can’t the imbeciles in this state see this? Haughty, blind, dumb and unconstitutional. We need sheriff’s because of crap like this to declare it unconstitutional immediately!.
You’ve made a clear and convincing case, Galeutian! A sheriff’s department like Andy Taylor’s and “Barney” Fife’s would do nicely. Nobody has heard of Mayberry, North Carolina, as ever having election irregularities! If any would have occurred, Taylor and Fife would have shut down the whole town and wouldn’t have put up with any nonsense in slamming any “anti-constitutionalists” in jail either! Good thinking, Galeutian! Good thinking!
Edit: “and wouldn’t have put up with any nonsense in slamming ‘anti-constitutionalist’ in jail either!”
Because your heart is corrupt and you hate my liberty. Why do you hate other peoples’s liberty? “Why Aint Bee, if I cain’t steal op’s liberty ah ain’t got no reason to live. Thas why I live in Alaska; ah can get away with it here. They’re so stupid Ain’t Bee”.
I take umbrage with your comment about my “corrupt heart,” but please feel free to wind yourself up and disparage my family for being run out of the Garden of Eden! As a conservative let me say, take as much liberty as you please in bashing me about with your book on English grammar and your Merriam-Webster’s dictionary. After you “download” yourself, let’s get back to the issue at hand: we have a problem of our own making that we need to resolve before the “left-wing activists” become woke to our dilemma!
So many are so accustomed to decreeing the taking of liberty of American’s lives that when confronted they are totally impervious to an idea that liberty is a right of Americans based upon the US Constitution clear language and definitions. Liberty may be taken in the case of murder, verbally threatening immediate bodily injury, penetrating rape, kidnapping / personal trading of people against their will are identified as the items for which liberty is taken. It’s a corruption of the US Constitution to add to the list. The whimsical desire to take other’s God-given liberty is a corruption of the heart.
Interesting. I completely agree with this California style voter registration. Association makes sense. Haven’t figured out the sheriff bit yet, but what we have sucks; local, Troopers, the entire inJustice system from bottom to top.
The governor has little or nothing to do with this election. He has proposals that were not voted on by the legislature that would tighten up things. Yes, Kevin Meyer is in charge, but he was the last Lt. Governor elected separately and then paired as a winner with the winning governor, Dunleavy. It is the legislature that would rather showboat than fix things because they don’t want Dunleavy to get any credit. Think Bryce Egemon, Stutes, and cohorts. But I agree whole-heartedly – purge the rolls! Let the dead rest in peace.
Yeah, it’s late. I messed up above. Of course he was selected and paired with Dunleavy.
If Wally and Jack went rogue this year instead ’90, I wonder what would happen…
We celebrated on the river that day. Thought Alaska was back.
Then…
What about voters in some villages with no mail service ?
“Equal protection” anyone ?
For starters, Ken, it’s a five-syllable phrase! Do you think it’s missing a syllable?
Polling shows that three or four of the Top four candidates will be Republicans. Once it is narrowed down to four candidates we will all be able to check their websites, see what their positions are, and pick our choices. The winner of that race will almost surely be a Republican, and that is what I would expect from a Republican leaning state.
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