More than 600 U.S. citizens were mistakenly flagged as possible noncitizens and removed from Alaska’s list of active voters earlier this year, the director of the Alaska Division of Elections said Aug. 6 in a letter responding to questions from state lawmakers.
Those citizens were among 3,058 people removed from the list after the division compared its citizenship data to a separate set of records kept by the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles.
Someone removed from the voter list may still cast a vote this year, but they will not appear on the register of their local precinct and will have to provide additional identity information in order to cast a “questioned ballot.”
Removal from the active voter list also puts a citizen on the path to being purged altogether from the voter list, an act that would make them ineligible to vote.
After the swath of 3,058 removals, the Division of Elections sent letters to every affected state resident, and many have responded.
“Approximately 685 voters have contacted the division and stated they are citizens, despite the inconsistency with the DMV’s records,” Carol Beecher, the division’s director, said in a letter addressed to the chairs of the Alaska House Judiciary Committee and the Alaska State Affairs Committee.
About 350 letters were returned as undeliverable, and 1,900 Alaskans have not responded at all, indicating that they may be unaware that they were removed from the active voter list before the Aug. 18 statewide primary election.
In an interview with the Anchorage Daily News earlier this week, and again in the Aug. 6 letter, Beecher said she will not unilaterally return affected Alaskans to the voter rolls.
The division will instead send out another notice to affected voters, she said.
Beecher’s letter leaves many questions unanswered and raises more. According to the letter, the Division of Elections checked “the entire statewide voter registration list … with DMV records.”
Normally, the two divisions only compare a fraction of the list, and typically only those people who are registered to vote through the federally mandated “motor-voter” program that prompts citizens to register to vote when they get a new driver’s license.
Legislators asked Beecher the reason for the switch, which took place with no notice, in an election year. Beecher’s letter does not answer that question.
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