00 HOUSE BILL NO. 47 01 "An Act relating to the delivery of the primary ballots to persons making 02 application for them when, by operation of political party rule, two or more 03 primary ballots must be provided to the public." 04 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 05 * Section 1. LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS AND INTENT. (a) To implement the stipulation 06 and approval entered into between the state and various parties in the case captioned Zawacki 07 v. State, No. A-92-414-Civil, in the United States District Court for the District of Alaska, the 08 lieutenant governor prepared and adopted a series of emergency regulations, codified as 6 09 AAC 28. Among the provisions was a subsection, 6 AAC 28.040(c), directing that "if an 10 applicant for an absentee ballot does not indicate a ballot preference on the absentee ballot 11 application, the director [of elections] will send the applicant the open primary (statutory) 12 ballot." As a result of the stipulated subsection, persons registered to the one political party 13 whose rules then required the use of a ballot containing a listing of candidates limited to those 14 who were registered as members of that political party received the absentee ballot for the 01 September 8, 1992, primary that contained the names of candidates seeking the nomination 02 of other political parties. The regulations in question lapsed, effective November 7, 1992, and 03 do not apply to future primary elections. 04 (b) The purpose of this Act is to establish that, for purposes of guiding future primary 05 elections, if a political party's rules require the use of an absentee ballot containing a listing 06 of candidates limited to those who were registered as members of that political party, absentee 07 ballot applicants shall receive the primary election ballot of their choice or, in the event of 08 failure to indicate a choice or lack of opportunity to make the choice, shall receive the 09 appropriate primary election ballots and shall be directed to make a choice between them, and 10 will not be required to vote an absentee ballot that contains the names of candidates seeking 11 the nomination of other political parties. 12 * Sec. 2. AS 15.20 is amended by adding a new section to read: 13  Sec. 15.20.155. DELIVERY OF PRIMARY BALLOT. (a) The provisions 14 of this section apply when 15  (1) the central committee or other governing body of a political party 16 adopts a rule that, notwithstanding AS 15.25.010 - 15.25.130, nominees of the party 17 may not be chosen by a primary election open to all voters, but rather shall be chosen 18 by a primary election that is limited to voters whose political affiliation or 19 nonaffiliation is designated by the party rules; and 20  (2) the director is prevented by application of that rule from providing 21 to a voter the ballot of a political party if, under the rules of that party, the voter 22 would not be eligible to vote in that party's primary election. 23  (b) If an applicant for an absentee ballot under AS 15.20.071, 15.20.081, or 24 15.20.082 25  (1) indicates a ballot preference on the absentee ballot application when 26 opportunity to indicate the preference has been provided on the absentee ballot 27 application, the director shall deliver to the applicant the primary ballot indicated on 28 the application; 29  (2) does not indicate a ballot preference on the absentee ballot 30 application when opportunity to indicate the preference has been provided on the 31 absentee ballot application, or the applicant has not been given an opportunity on the 01 absentee ballot application to indicate the applicant's preference, the director shall 02 deliver to the applicant all primary ballots that are appropriate to the primary election 03 of the applicant's political party affiliation or nonaffiliation, together with an 04 instruction to vote only one of the ballots; the director shall make the determination 05 of appropriateness of the primary ballots on the basis of voter registration documents 06 maintained by the director.