News and Events
The 33rd Alaska State Legislature convenes January 17th
Our legislative priorities and focus areas are centered around voting rights and access. We’ll be highlighting those bills and issues important to the League of Women Voters Alaska, and all of us in Alaska.
The 2023 Legislative Session begins!
Read the 2023 Newsletters published by the LWV-Alaska
What We’re Watching…
House of Representatives
This year’s election brings 19 new House members into the group of 40, although two of them are former legislators. We are waiting to see when the House will determine a majority. No business will begin until a majority is established.
Pre-filed bills we’ll be monitoring this session (links will take you to the full text):
- HB 1– REPEAL BALLOT MEASURE 2 VOTING CHGS -Rauscher
- Ballot measure 2 repeal.
- HB 4 -ELECTIONS: REPEAL BALLOT MEASURE 2 -Vance
- Ballot measure 2 repeal.
- HB 24– GOV APPOINT BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF AK BAR – Rauscher
- Changes the membership of the Alaska Bar and requires the members to be appointed by the governor and confirmed by the legislature.
- HB 34– CONFIRMATION/QUALIFICATIONS OF JUDGES – Rauscher
- Amends the selection and retention of judges, modifies the qualification of the supreme court justices, superior and district court judges, and magistrates, and requires legislative confirmation for a court of appeals judge or district court judge, and requires supreme court justices to have been confirmed previously by the legislature as a COA judge or district court judge.
- HB 36– APOC; REFERENDA/RECALL; CONTRIBUTIONS – Schrage
- Provides for campaign finance contribution limits including for initiatives and referendums.
- HB 37– ELECTIONS, VOTING, BALLOTS – Schrage
- Allows for election day registration and use of electronic signature. Prohibits the physical display of images of marked ballots within 200 feet of a polling place but does not preclude an individual from sharing on social media.
Senate
There are seven new senators out of their 20, but one is a former senator and three are former House members. The Alaska Senate has organized around a 17-member bipartisan supermajority with all nine Democrats and eight of 11 Republicans. The bills with sponsors in the majority have a better chance of moving forward.
Pre-filed bills we’ll be monitoring this session:
- SB 1– ELECTIONS: BALLOT, VOTING, SECURITY – Shower
- Requires the director of elections to adopt regulations providing for ballot security and chain of custody system.
- SB 2– REPEAL BALLOT MEASURE 2 VOTING CHGS – Shower
- Repeals Ballot Measure 2
- SB 5-VOTER REGISTRATION – Shower
- Requires the director of elections to send notices to those registered voters not domiciled in the state and adopt regulations for regular review and updates of the master register.
- SB 6-VOTING MACHINES AND VOTE TALLY SYSTEMS – Shower
- Requires voting machines to meet the US Election Assistance Commission’s guidelines and certified by the commission.
- SB 7– ELECTION INTERFERENCE, FRAUD, MISCONDUCT -Shower
- Adds the intentional opening or tampering with absentee ballots or election machinery to the list of crimes of unlawful interference with an election, establishes a crime of election fraud as a Class B Felony
- SB 17– CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS – Kawasaki
- Establishes Campaign Finance limits for individuals, non-group entities, groups, and joint campaigns for gov/lg campaigns and establishes a 4 year CPI increase of those limits.
- SB 19– ELECTIONS; BALLOTS – Kawasaki
- Requires the director to provide postage-paid return envelopes for absentee ballots, examine each ballot and whether the signature is consistent with voter registration records, and create an online ballot tracking system. Creates a procedure for curing uncounted ballots
- SB 29– CIVICS EDUCATION; EST AK CVCS ED COMM – Stevens
- Requires school board to develop civics education curriculum and graduation requirement for high school students and prepare a report to the legislature.
- SB 31– SELECTION AND REVIEW OF JUDGES – Shower
- Requires voters retention of magistrates and places the same statutory provisions for district judges on magistrates. Removes the 45 day limit for the governor to fill a judicial vacancy and requires legislative confirmation of nominees.
Prepare to vote: Verify your information
Don’t have an issue when you vote. Make sure your information is correct.
The easiest way to check and/or update your voter registration is online. Be sure your address is up-to-date, and find your district, precinct and polling place. Click here to check your information.
Decide which option you prefer for voting: absentee by mail, in person early voting, or on Election Day. Are you heading out of town? If so, apply for an absentee ballot before it is too late. Click here to download an absentee ballot form.
Can’t get off of work on election day? Check for early voting options, often two weeks’ prior to the election day. NOT ALL LOCATIONS in Alaska have early voting, so check early. Click here to find early voting locations, dates and hours.
Want to vote in person ON Election day? Verify your polling place. Click here to find your polling place.
When voting in person, bring either your voter ID card or driver’s license. Other forms of ID could be a state ID, military ID, passport, hunting or fishing license, or another current valid photo ID. If you don’t have one of these IDs, you may present a current utility bill, paycheck, government check, bank statement or another government-issued document. Check the Division of Elections webpage for more information on Voter ID.
Get Informed!
Check out more details by selecting the section at the right.
Ranked Choice Voting gives voters the chance to rank candidates in order of preference. It’s straightforward: rank candidates in order of your choice. Bottom line: If one candidate receives a majority (more than 50%) of the first-choice votes, they win! If not, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and those votes count instantly toward the next choice on each voter’s ballot. This process repeats until one candidate has a majority.
Here are additional links for more information on Ranked Choice Voting.
Know how you are going to vote before you go.
The Alaska Division of Elections has updated their website. Get information directly from the source. There are many more sites you can look over to help you make up your mind.
Main page for the Alaska Division of Elections. Start here.
Kenai Peninsula Votes YouTube tells you what to expect at the polls.
AARP Alaska has a great Alaska Voting Site with clear and easy to follow information.
League of Women Voters – Vote411 site.
- Be willing and ready to vote in all elections. In Alaska, you can register and update your residence address here: https://voterregistration.alaska.gov
- If you move from Alaska, let the Division of Elections know that you won’t be voting and ask them to take your name off Alaska’s voter rolls. The quickest way to do this is to call your local state election office. The election worker will ask for your name and identifying information such as birthdate, social security number, or driver’s license and remove your name from the voter rolls. And don’t forget to register in your new state.
- Voters must self-educate themselves about issues and candidates. Don’t rely on one line from a campaign poster or a blurb from the TV, or the candidate’s party affiliation. Listen to debates and check the candidate’s website or social media.
- Be aware as a voter about disinformation (deliberate use of false info), misinformation (accidental use of false info) and gaslighting (denying the obvious). These are used to confuse voters.
- Demand civil discourse in a discussion of public policy. Voters deserve fact-based rebuttal; they don’t need name-calling or gaslighting, both techniques that weaken a democracy.
- Democratic governance works best when both candidates and voters use critical thinking and work across party lines to shape the best public policy possible.
A source you can trust
The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization. We encourage the informed and active participation of citizens in government. The League acts in support of, or in opposition to, selected governmental issues that its members have studied. It does not support or oppose candidates, factions, or political parties. League members, as individuals, may support candidates of the political party of their choice. In order to protect the League’s nonpartisanship policy, guidelines regarding the political activities of the Board of Directors are reviewed frequently.
