Latest news with #SenateBill64
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
At adjournment, Alaska Legislature leaves elections overhaul, campaign finance bills undone
Rep. Calvin Schrage, I-Anchorage, speaks to the Alaska House of Representatives on Friday, April 25, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) The Alaska Legislature adjourned its regular session on Tuesday without finishing work on a major elections bill or a bill reimposing limits on cash donations to election candidates. House Bill 16, the campaign finance bill, and Senate Bill 64, the elections reform legislation, are expected to return when the Legislature resumes work in January, and they could be part of a wave of major legislation that advances through the Capitol early next year. 'We got really close with the election bill, and I think the prospects for passing next year are good,' said Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham. 'I expect that we may have a legitimate shot at passing that bill early next session,' he said. Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, said that both bills could have gotten legislative approval, but they would have been vetoed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. 'We were told flat out, the governor would veto it, by someone in the governor's office,' Wielechowski said. The governor's communications office did not respond to an email asking whether Wielechowski's statement was accurate. If enacted, HB 16 would, among other things, limit Alaskans to $2,000 in donations per candidate in each two-year election cycle. Alaska currently has no limit on the amount of money a person can donate to a candidate. A ballot measure is slated for the 2026 election, but the restrictions could come into place earlier, if the Legislature approves. SB 64, as currently written, is a broad election reform bill that includes significant changes to the way the state deals with absentee voting. 'I think we are poised and in a position where there will be a number of pieces of significant legislation passed next year, probably early on in the session, and we will be dealing with a number of veto overrides during the session,' Wielechowski said. Wielechowski said the possibilities include an elections bill, a campaign finance bill, the long-awaited pension restoration bill and a bill taxing businesses whose owners are taxed separately from the businesses, known as C-corporations. To avoid a veto, Wielechowski and others said they intend to work with Republicans in the House and Senate minorities to try to garner support for a compromise that could win a veto-proof majority of votes in the Legislature. It takes 40 votes to override a policy veto; the coalition majorities in the House and Senate have a combined 35 members, meaning that additional Republican support would be needed. House Minority Leader Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, said she thinks changes to Senate Bill 64 are needed for any compromise. 'I was really proud of our finance team for helping stop that version of the bill, because it really had some things in there that were not productive and were not representative of our values and what we think should be in an elections bill,' she said. 'I do think there is room to make it better. I just think we weren't a part of that discussion (on advancing the bill), but I think they realized that we have to be, moving forward.' On the campaign finance bill, getting a veto-proof majority is 'possible,' said Rep. Calvin Schrage, I-Anchorage and the bill's sponsor. 'I've personally spoken to a number of minority members who recognize the need for limits. They were disappointed as well that the bill wasn't taken up. We do have a very high veto threshold, so it'll be a challenge,' Schrage said. 'But as I remind legislators all the time around here, this is going to happen one way or another when this goes to the ballot, so I think we have an opportunity to save the time and expense and put this in place ourselves. If we don't, Alaskans will take action.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alaska election bill stalls in House committee with days remaining in legislative session
May 17—JUNEAU — A bill meant to update Alaska's election laws has stalled in a House committee, casting doubt on whether the measure can pass before the end of the session, House leaders said Saturday. Senate Bill 64 is a compilation of voting-related measures that passed the Senate along caucus lines on Monday, giving the House just 10 days' time to parse the 33-page bill before the end-of-session deadline. The legislative session must end on Wednesday. The package includes measures to allow Alaskans to correct mistakes on absentee ballots, a process used in two-thirds of states; it removes the requirement for witness signatures on absentee ballots; it speeds up the ballot counting process; and it streamlines the process of removing ineligible voters from the rolls, among other changes. It would ensure that the Division of Elections is staffed with rural liaisons, in an effort to address repeat instances in which polling places in rural Alaska do not open due to missing election materials or understaffing. The measure would also require the state to offer prepaid ballot postage for absentee ballots, and allow voters to opt-in to receive absentee ballots every election year, rather than having to request an absentee ballot ahead of every election. If the bill does not pass this year, lawmakers could take it up again when they reconvene in January, but that may make it difficult for the Division of Elections to implement the changes ahead of the 2026 election. Sen. Bill Wielechowski, an Anchorage Democrat who took the lead on crafting the bill, said this was the top issue he worked on this session. "This has been my No. 1 focus," Wielechowski said Saturday. "I've had dozens of meetings on it with everybody — all caucuses, the governor's office." But ultimately, none of the Senate Republican minority members voted in favor of the bill, and in the House Finance Committee, the bill faced question after question about the bill's implications for election security. The bill includes provisions introduced by Gov. Mike Dunleavy earlier this year, but the governor has remained silent on it. The House Finance Committee spent several hours debating the bill on Wednesday and Thursday, before Foster said Friday that he would not take up the bill again in committee before the end of the session. "I'm going to be setting that aside," Foster said during a Friday committee hearing. "We gave it a shot, thinking that we might be able to arrive at some consensus, but we just simply can't do it in the short amount of time that we have, to give it the proper due diligence that we need to get through introduction all the way through passage." Foster later said that minority members had indicated they would introduce up to 100 amendments to the bill, which would take up more than a day's worth of committee work. Rep. Jeremy Bynum, a Ketchikan Republican who serves on the Finance Committee, said his questions were not intended to stall the bill, but rather to ensure it received sufficient consideration. The measure is supported by several Alaska groups, including the Alaska Federation of Natives, which sent out a message on Friday urging its members to call lawmakers and push for the bill's passage. Alaska Native voting advocates have long said that the state's voting system does not provide adequate support for voters in the state's rural communities, and many of the fixes they have requested are included in the bill. The reform efforts are motivated in part by a special election conducted in 2022 by mail, in which thousands of absentee ballots were rejected due to deficient witness signatures, impacting rural communities disproportionately. The 2024 election also saw hundreds of absentee ballots rejected, many for lacking a witness signature. This would not be the first time that an omnibus election bill fell apart in the final days of a legislative session. In 2022, a last-minute deal to restore Alaska's campaign finance laws fell through in the last day of the session, tanking with it other pieces of election-related legislation. The following year, a bill to update Alaska's election laws was again introduced but failed to pass both the House and Senate before the 2024 session concluded. A separate piece of election-related legislation is still poised for consideration in the Senate before the session concludes. House Bill 16, which has already passed the House, would impose campaign contribution limits for state-run elections for the first time since a federal judge in 2021 invalidated the state's previous limits. Wielechowski said some pieces of the election bill could still pass this year, as he works on paring down the measure and selecting the pieces of it that can garner broad support. "This is not going away. It's been a decade in the making," he said.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alaska Senate passes elections overhaul to update voter rolls, introduce ballot tracking, curing
A sign posted on Aug. 18, 2024, outside of the Alaska Division of Elections office in Midtown Anchorage directs voters to the polling place inside. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) The Alaska Senate voted to enact new rules to streamline the voting process in Alaska and expand voter access. If signed into law, the legislation would update the state's voter rolls, mandate that the state pay for postage for mailed ballots, introduce a new ballot tracking system, and repeal a requirement that a witness sign absentee ballots, among other changes. The Senate passed Senate Bill 64 along caucus lines, voting 14 to 6 on Monday. The bill now moves to the House for consideration in the last week of the legislative session. Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage and a bill supporter, called it a 'compromise bill' years in the making at a news conference on Tuesday. 'It includes 12 different bills that have been introduced over the years from members of all political parties — Republicans, Democrats, independents, minority and majority members,' he said. 'Roughly 50% of the bill is at the request of the minority in the House and the Senate. So it is truly a compromise bill.' Wielechowski said the first goal of the bill is to update the state's voter rolls. 'We have 106% more registered voters in the state than we have citizens, and so it takes some steps to fix that,' he said. Under SB 64, the Division of Elections would send a notice to confirm address if the voter has: Registered to vote in a another state Received a driver's license in another state Registered a vehicle in another state Served on a jury in another state Obtained a resident hunting or fishing license in another state Pays resident tuition at at university in another state Receives a residential property tax exemption in another state Receives public assistance in another state If passed, the bill clarifies residency as 'as a place where a voter has a reasonable and articulable plan to return to whenever they are absent.' The bill would shorten the timeframe in which Alaskans are marked as inactive voters and can ultimately be removed from the voter rolls if they don't vote. It also would expand the list of things that trigger notices to start that removal process. Once those notices are sent, the voter will have a chance to respond within 45 days, or be moved to an inactive status for a period of 28 months, or two elections. In that time, a voter can confirm residency and their voter registration by contacting the division, or by voting. Wielechowski said the bill addresses the causes of ballots being disqualified, by eliminating the witness signature requirement for absentee ballots and allowing mistakes to be corrected ahead of Election Day. 'It fixes a number of issues that have resulted in voters' ballots being thrown out, particularly military voters, and particularly those in rural Alaska: There's a witness signature problem,' he said. Wielechowski pointed to House District 18, which includes Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, as having the highest rate of reject ballots in the last election. In the 2024 general election, the state rejected 1,303 absentee ballots, or 1.7% of ballots cast. Nearly 40%, or 512 ballots were rejected due to 'improper or insufficient witnessing.' That was fewer than the special election in 2022 following the death of U.S. Rep. Don Young, when over 7,500 ballots were rejected, with a third of those due to a lack of witness signature. If passed, the bill would allow for voters to fix minor errors, with the division notifying and allowing the voter an opportunity to correct a mistake before Election Day, a process called 'ballot curing.' The American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska, which advocates for civil and voter rights, has been calling for both items, and supports the bill, according to Michael Garvey, its policy director. 'We've seen it lead to completely unnecessary rejections,' he said. He noted that rejection rates have been higher in rural districts, as well as districts with higher proportions of Alaska Native voters. 'And so someone who's taken the time to fill out their ballot, put it in the mail, put a stamp on it, and a lot of cases to have that rejected, and then just to be notified that it didn't end up counting, that's pretty dispiriting,' Garvey said. 'And so the state really should have a way to allow voters to fix that small amount of mistakes.' The ACLU filed a lawsuit in 2022 asserting the state violated due process rights when rejecting ballots without notice or opportunity to correct errors. The Alaska Superior Court denied the motion in a January ruling, but said that the Legislature could enact a 'notice-and-cure system.' Under the legislation, voters would be notified of technical mistakes before an election and be able to correct them. Voters would not be able to open the envelope and change their vote, but be able to fix external mistakes, such as missing a signature. The division would notify the voter within 24 hours, by email or phone number, and the voter would be able to provide identification and correct the mistake by filling out and submitting a form. The bill also establishes a new ballot tracking system, so voters can be notified when their ballot is received and counted. It also provides for paid postage for all absentee ballots. Other new provisions in the bill include: Adding tribal identification cards to the list of acceptable voter identification in person and by mail; Removing hunting and fishing licenses from the list of voter identification; Establishing a new rural community liaison position within the Division of Elections to support rural districts, including recruitment and training of poll workers; Requiring that secure ballot drop boxes be available at every division office, and allowing municipalities to provide drop boxes in accordance with division regulations; Requiring the state to develop a cybersecurity program, and notify the public if there is a data breach; Requiring that absentee ballot counting start 12 days before the election; and Requiring the division to publish results for all rankings in the precinct results. The Division of Elections has estimated that if passed, the bill's new provisions, staff salaries and cost of paid postage would cost $765,000 in one-time costs and $190,000 annually. However, Republican members of the Senate objected to what they say is not enough security protocols to prevent opportunities for voter fraud. 'We have a moniker: You want to make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat,' said Sen. Mike Shower, R-Wasilla in an interview Thursday. 'I want to be clear that I've never said fraud swung an election. I said I want to make sure we don't have the potential for fraud, which I think the Division of Elections director agrees with.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Shower said he opposed removing the witness signature, without another kind of verification check. 'We suggested several things, like doing what the Permanent Fund Division, use their data, have two attesters… (who) under the penalty of perjury, would have to attest that yes, you are, in fact, her (the voter),' he said, and it was rejected by the bills sponsors. Shower also opposed several items, including ballot drop boxes, and has concerns about the language around residency and whether voter rolls are accurate or updated. He said he also has concerns that mail-in absentee ballots present a scenario where they're fraudulently filled out, and the division cannot verify the true identity of the voter. 'Who knows where they went? Who knows how many of them came back? We have no idea,' he said. Opponents of these proposals have pointed out that there isn't much evidence of Alaskans committing the crime of voter fraud. The state has investigated a few cases – the current system catches when two ballots are submitted for the same voter, which has been extremely rare, and can result when a voter forgets that they had already cast a mailed ballot. Shower said he's concerned about personal data breaches like in 2020, where an estimated 113,000 voters' personal data was exposed, and he wants to see the state take more serious security protocols. The bill is now being heard in the House Finance Committee and is expected to move to a full House vote in the final days of the session, which ends May 21. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alaska lawmakers near final vote on bill to limit state campaign donations
The Alaska and American flags fly in front of the Alaska State Capitol on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) The Alaska Legislature is nearing a final vote on a bill that would limit state politicians' ability to accept campaign donations. On Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee voted without objection to advance House Bill 16 to a vote of the full Senate. That vote is expected before lawmakers adjourn their regular session on May 21. The House passed the bill in late April, leaving only the Senate and Gov. Mike Dunleavy as the final potential barriers to enactment. The governor has not commented on the bill but has previously said that he prefers having no limits on campaign donations. HB 16 is identical to a ballot measure slated for a statewide vote in 2026. If HB 16 becomes law, that measure would be canceled, and the 2026 elections would move forward with donation limits in place. HB 16 proposes to limit Alaskans to $2,000 in donations per candidate in each two-year election cycle. For the governor's race, where a lieutenant governor candidate and governor candidate run together on a single ticket, the limit would be $4,000. The limit for donations from one person to a political party or group would be $5,000. If a group wants to donate to a candidate, the limit is $4,000, or $8,000 for the governor's race. Those limits would be adjusted for inflation every 10 years. The new limits are required because a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2021 that the state's prior limits were unconstitutional. The Dunleavy administration declined to appeal that ruling. On Wednesday, Sen. James Kaufman, R-Anchorage, proposed amending the bill to include higher donation limits equivalent to those in federal law. The committee voted down that amendment, and Schrage said he prefers to keep the bill in line with the ballot measure. Doing otherwise could run afoul of a clause of the Alaska Constitution that says the Legislature can override an upcoming ballot measure only if it enacts a law 'substantially similar' to the measure. HB 16 is expected to move in parallel with Senate Bill 64, an elections bill moving toward a final vote in the state House, multiple lawmakers said, meaning that both bills are expected to reach final votes about the same time. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alaska Legislature considers comprehensive election bill in final days of session
May 13—JUNEAU — The Alaska Legislature is considering a comprehensive election reform measure with a suite of policies intended to make voting more accessible and secure, and to speed up when election results are reported. The Senate advanced Senate Bill 64 on Monday to the House, where the bill is expected to be fast-tracked through the committee process in the final days of the legislative session. The measure was written to appeal to lawmakers across the political spectrum. Anchorage Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski said before Monday's final vote that SB 64 is "truly, a compromise bill" with substantial input from Republican minority members and the Dunleavy administration. He said the bill is not partisan, but it makes common-sense election reforms. "It fixes a lot of things that have long been needed to be fixed," he added. Members of the bipartisan House and Senate majorities have said election reform is a top priority this year after several near misses. Provisions include: —Plans to allow Alaskans to correct mistakes on absentee ballots, a process used in two-thirds of states called "ballot curing." Voters in rural Alaska and military voters have disproportionately had their ballots rejected due to errors such as forgetting to include a witness signature on ballot envelopes. SB 64 would eliminate that requirement after lawmakers noted those signatures are not verified by the Division of Elections. Additionally, postage would be paid by the state for absentee ballots. —Alaska has the slowest ballot counting process in America. SB 64 intends to make that faster by implementing a 10-day deadline for by-mail ballots, which would allow earlier certification of results. —The bill intends to improve election security by establishing cybersecurity protections for voter registration records and by ensuring all campaigns can observe polling places and ballot review processes. Residency requirements would also be made stricter for Alaskans who move Outside and seek to return. —Alaska has long had more people on its voter rolls than residents in the state. SB 64 intends to shorten and streamline the process to remove ineligible voters from the rolls. State agencies would also share data to find out-of-state voters and duplicate registrations. The bill would also add tribal identification cards, and remove hunting and fishing licenses, as valid forms of ID to vote — among a long list of other changes. [Alaska House passes public pension bill, sending it to Senate] Despite the bipartisan approach, the Senate approved SB 64 along caucus lines on a 14-6 vote. All members of the bipartisan Senate majority voted for the bill; all six members of the Republican Senate minority voted no. Wasilla Republican Sen. Mike Shower applauded the collaborative process to craft SB 64. But he said the measure "fell short of the mark." In a Tuesday interview, Shower said there were some non-controversial provisions in the bill. He cited a ban on AI-created "deepfakes" in political advertising. Elections experts nationally have raised concerns that images created by AI could confuse voters and potentially sway elections. However, Shower said he had sought certain stricter safeguards in the measure. He pointed to a provision that would allow voters to get absentee ballots indefinitely, so long as they vote at least once every four years. Shower said he would oppose a "permanent absentee ballot application process" due to election integrity concerns. SB 64 has been supported by groups such as the Alaska Federation of Natives, the League of Women Voters of Alaska, and the Alaska AFL-CIO. Lawmakers say the bill is being advanced quickly with the intention of passing it this year. That way, the policy changes could be in place for the 2026 election. Election measures are set to advance quickly through the House committee process this year, lawmakers said. Anchorage independent Rep. Calvin Schrage said that elections reform is top priority for the House majority. "I've seen too many voters disenfranchised, and I think this is another one of those issues Alaskans are really wanting us to take action on," he said. The measure contains several provisions proposed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy's administration. Several lawmakers said they were unsure whether Dunleavy would support it. Jeff Turner, a spokesperson for the governor's office, declined to comment on Dunleavy's opinions on the bill. Turner noted that the measure could change in the House. Some conservative House lawmakers have expressed concerns. Homer Republican Rep. Sarah Vance opposed eliminating the witness signature requirement and other provisions in the bill. She said that would weaken Alaska's election system. Vance, a minority member, urged further compromise. "If there is any will by the governing majority to do that, you're running out of time," she said at a Tuesday committee hearing. In the past three years, the Legislature has twice failed to pass an elections bill on the final day of the legislative session. In 2022, a last-minute deal collapsed to reestablish stricter campaign contribution limits in Alaska. Last year, the House failed to pass another election reform bill. Former Republican House Speaker Cathy Tilton suggested last year that the measure was blocked because it would have benefited then-U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat. Shower and Wielechowski have been part of prior efforts to pass election reform bills. Both senators said they would work to reach a compromise before the legislative session ends.
