Alaskans will decide on Nov. 3 whether to change state voter qualification language related to the citizenship requirement to vote.
Only U.S. citizens are eligible to vote in national and state elections. Ballot Measure 3 would not change any requirements to vote but proposes adding the word “only” to state statute.
In Alaska, the law states “a person may vote at any election who is a citizen of the United States.” Ballot Measure 3 asks voters whether to change language to add the word to read: “Only a person who is a citizen of the United States … may vote in any election.”
The ballot measure was sponsored by several former Republican state legislators, including former state senators John Coghill of Fairbanks and Josh Revak of Anchorage, and former House Speaker Mike Chenault of Nikiski.
Supporters of the measure, called Alaskans for Citizen Voting, argue the current law is unclear and should be updated to clarify only U.S. citizens may vote. The group has raised nearly $900,000 this election cycle, with more than $800,000 of that amount financed by Wisconsin businessman and major GOP donor and billionaire Richard Uihlein, according to reporting by the Anchorage Daily News.
“The current law says citizens may vote, but it does not specifically say that only citizens may vote, and this measure closes that gap, and it makes the law in Alaska unmistakably clear,” Coghill said at a July 27 hearing on the ballot measure.
The point of the ballot measure, he said, “is to close that door before it gets pushed open.”
The Alaska chapter is part of a national group, Americans for Citizen Voting, which works to pass citizen-only initiatives across the country. Five other states including Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, South Dakota and West Virginia have proposed constitutional amendments this election to bar noncitizen voting.
Some elections watchdogs say the initiatives are a political stunt to turn conservative voters out at the polls, according to reporting by Stateline, particularly where Republicans are fighting for reelection and to maintain majority control in the U.S. House and Senate.
In Alaska, no group officially formed to oppose Ballot Measure 3, but several current legislators gave personal testimony in opposition at the July hearing.
Anchorage independent Rep. Alyse Galvin testified that Alaska already has a citizenship requirement, and the change would be redundant. She also pointed to increased scrutiny by the Alaska Division of Elections, which preemptively removed over 3,000 voters from the active voter list pending proof of citizenship and said the act instilled fear in her constituents with newly acquired U.S. citizenship in voting.
“They’re afraid to go into the polls. That’s not OK. They’re afraid because of all of this rhetoric around what’s happening with ICE and everything else. They don’t know if now they’re on some special list,” Galvin said.
“Our system somehow has created fear,” she continued. “And my worry is that this particular ballot measure is going to engender more of that, more of this sort of action, and more of this sort of fear.”
Anchorage Democratic Rep. Andrew Gray, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, echoed the criticism that the ballot measure is unnecessary, and spoke to a recent case where he said U.S. nationals were prosecuted for voting in Alaska.
“I am not concerned about California. In Alaska, non-U.S. citizens are already forbidden from voting in local and state elections. This is what led to the arrest of voters in Whittier a couple of years ago,” he said.
Gray said the recent criminal prosecution of 11 American Samoan residents in Whittier — where some voted and a resident ran for school board — was a failure of the Division of Elections, law enforcement and those residents in understanding the law.
American Samoans are U.S. nationals and have irrevocable rights to reside in the United States but are not U.S. citizens and therefore do not have the right to vote in state or federal elections. In the Whittier case, 11 residents were charged with illegally voting, and the state dropped the charges after a court of appeals dismissed the case last month.
The Alaska Beacon is an independent, donor-funded news organization, online at Alaskabeacon.com.
