Corinne Smith, Alaska Beacon
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed a bipartisan bill aimed at streamlining the state’s elections process on Thursday, just seven months ahead of high-stakes state and federal elections in November.
Leaders with the multipartisan House Majority caucus said there will be a joint legislative veto override vote within the next few days.
In a prepared statement announcing the veto, Dunleavy said while there are many provisions in the bills he supports, the bill contained “legal and operational challenges and could jeopardize the election process.” He told lawmakers his two main issues with the bill are related to when it would go into effect and voters’ signature verification.
“The Division of Elections warns such changes would be extremely difficult if not impossible, to implement securely and reliably in advance of the 2026 elections,” he wrote in a transmittal letter to the Legislature. He said the Division needs sufficient time to make necessary changes.
The Alaska House passed the bill in March along caucus lines, following passage by the Senate last year. It contained a variety of changes to the state’s elections system, which supporters say is years overdue and needed to update and strengthen the elections process and expand voter access.
The governor said that the bill would impose “significant operational hurdles” for the Alaska Division of Elections in administering state and federal elections in November.
Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, who carried the legislation in the Senate, condemned the decision in a written statement following the announcement.
“Governor Dunleavy has said, by his veto, that Alaska’s elections are secure enough,” Wielechowski said. “Unfortunately, they are not, and even his supporters confirm that. Our voter rolls stood at 114% of the voting-age population in 2022. Ballots are being rejected over technical errors. Tampering with a voting machine is not explicitly a crime under current law. This bill addressed every one of those concerns. The Governor had every reason to sign it.”
The bill would have authorized checks to update Alaska’s voter rolls. Officials have said managing an updated voter registration list is a continuous challenge with Alaska’s transitional environment and many residents moving in and out of state, resulting in the number of registered voters currently outnumbering actual eligible voters in state.
The bill would also have enacted a new ballot tracking system, provided paid postage for all absentee mail-in ballots, strengthened security protocols, and implemented provisions for faster elections results, among others.
The Legislature has five days to convene in a joint session to consider an override of Dunleavy’s veto. A majority of 40 votes of the Legislature’s 60 members are needed for an override.
“There will be a veto override vote. I don’t think it will come as a surprise to the governor,” said House Speaker Rep. Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, in a call Thursday evening.
On Thursday afternoon, members of the House Majority caucus slammed the decision Thursday following the announcement, saying in a joint statement the veto is “a significant setback for election integrity and a direct blow to voting access for Alaskans living in rural and off-road communities.”
Edgmon called the decision “deeply disappointing.”
“This was a bipartisan effort to address the real challenges of voting in a state as vast, rural and remote as Alaska. We worked in good faith to improve access, strengthen transparency, and maintain the integrity of our elections,” Edgmon said. “Alaskans deserve a system that reflects our unique geography, not one that ignores it. This veto does exactly that.”
Rep. Nellie Unangiq Jimmie, D-Toksook Bay, said that rural Alaska “is the hardest place in the state” to vote.
“Everyone who has looked at the data knows that. We passed a bill to clean up our rolls and remove barriers. It will not become law today,” she said. “My people have been patient with systems that were not built for us, distances that were not considered, delays inevitable in rural areas beyond our control. So today, the problem doesn’t go away. Neither do we.”
Dunleavy also took issue with provisions to establish a ballot tracking system and to allow voters to fix mistakes on their ballot — a process called ballot curing — by requiring the division to contact the voter by phone or email within 24 hours. Under the bill, voters would have been allowed to return a form to correct the ballot with a copy of identification by email or by mail within 10 days of the election for their ballot to be counted.
“The ballot-tracking and ballot-curing provisions are especially problematic,” Dunleavy wrote. “The ballot-curing provisions create tension with Alaska’s witness requirement by allowing a voter to cure a missing witness signature after the ballot has already been returned, even though Alaska’s absentee-ballot framework requires the voters certificate to be signed in the presence of a qualified attesting official or witness.”
The governor sent a letter following a meeting with presiding officers of the Legislature on Thursday with technical changes he’d like to see in legislation for fixing ballots, evaluating and verifying signatures.
Dunleavy said the potential Alaska gas line is his main priority, but he’s open to continuing negotiations on the elections bill this session.
“While the Alaska gas line bill is the most important bill this session, I am open to a conversation with lawmakers on how we can address the legal and operational issues this session.”
Other provisions in the now vetoed bill would have included:
- Require all absentee ballots to be received within 10 days of Election Day;
- Establish a new rural community liaison position within the Division of Elections to support rural districts, including recruitment and training of poll workers;
- Require the Permanent Fund Dividend Division to share data to improve the accuracy of the voter rolls’
- Require the state to develop a cybersecurity program, and notify the public if there is a data breach;
- Require the division to publish results for all rankings in the precinct results.
- Require presidential ballots to include a line for write-in votes for president and vice president
- Updates crimes of unlawful interference with an election, ballot tampering and election official misconduct
Dunleavy said he applauded the Legislature’s efforts, but said the state needs more time to make changes to the state’s elections system.
“I appreciate the efforts made to improve Alaska’s elections. Going forward, I encourage those who wish to continue this work to use this bill as a starting point; ensure that any proposed changes comply with state and federal law; and pass any election legislation on a timeline that allows the Division of Elections to implement the necessary systems properly,” he said.
Edgmon said that the issues Dunleavy raised were “highly subjective” and lawmakers had heard from the division and the lieutenant governor, who is charged with overseeing state elections, that the timeline for implementing the bill was doable.
Edgmon said it’s unclear if there are the votes to override.
“You never know until the votes are tallied. You just never know,” he said. “And I know there will be plenty of votes. Will there be enough? I’m not going to hazard a guess at this point, because I’ve been proven wrong before.”
This story has been updated as of 6 p.m.
