HB 336: "An Act relating to election ballots."
00 HOUSE BILL NO. 336 01 "An Act relating to election ballots." 02 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 03 * Section 1. AS 15.15.030 is amended to read: 04 Sec. 15.15.030. Preparation of official ballot. The director shall prepare all 05 official ballots to facilitate fairness, simplicity, and clarity in the voting procedure, to 06 reflect most accurately the intent of the voter, and to expedite the administration of 07 elections. The following directives shall be followed when applicable: 08 (1) The director shall determine the size of the ballot, the type of print, 09 necessary additional instruction notes to voters, and other similar matters of form not 10 provided by law. 11 (2) The director shall number ballots in series to ensure simplicity and 12 secrecy and to prevent fraud. 13 (3) The director shall contract for the preparation of ballots under 14 AS 36.30 (State Procurement Code). 15 (4) The director may not include on the ballot, as a part of a candidate's
01 name, any honorary or assumed title or prefix but may include in the candidate's name 02 any nickname or familiar form of a proper name of the candidate. 03 (5) The names of the candidates shall be placed in separate sections on 04 the state general election ballot under the office designation to which they were 05 nominated. If a candidate is registered as affiliated with a political party or political 06 group, the party affiliation, if any, may be designated after the name of the candidate, 07 upon request of the candidate. If a candidate has requested designation as nonpartisan 08 or undeclared, that designation shall be placed after the name of the candidate. If a 09 candidate is not registered as affiliated with a political party or political group and has 10 not requested to be designated as nonpartisan or undeclared, the candidate shall be 11 designated as undeclared. The lieutenant governor and the governor shall be included 12 under the same section. The director shall provide space to rank four [PROVISION 13 SHALL BE MADE FOR VOTING FOR] write-in candidates within each section. 14 Paper ballots for the state general election shall be printed on white paper. 15 (6) The names of the candidates for each office shall be set out in the 16 same order on ballots printed for use in each house district. The director shall 17 randomly determine the order of the names of the candidates for state representative 18 for each house district. The director shall rotate the order of placement of the names of 19 candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, United States senator, United States 20 representative, and state senator on the ballot for each house district. 21 (7) The general election ballot shall be designed with the names of 22 candidates of each political party, and of any independent candidates qualified under 23 AS 15.30.026, for the office of President and Vice-President of the United States 24 placed in the same section on the ballot rather than the names of electors of President 25 and Vice-President. 26 (8) The general or special election ballot shall be designed with the 27 title and proposition for any initiative, referendum, or constitutional amendment 28 formulated as prescribed by law and placed on the ballot in the manner prescribed by 29 the director. When placed on the ballot, a state ballot proposition or ballot question 30 shall carry the number that was assigned to the petition for the proposition or question. 31 Provision shall be made for marking the proposition "Yes" or "No."
01 (9) The general or special election ballot shall be designed with the 02 question of whether a constitutional convention shall be called placed on the ballot in 03 the following manner: "Shall there be a constitutional convention?" Provision shall be 04 made for marking the question "Yes" or "No." 05 (10) A nonpartisan ballot shall be designed for each judicial district in 06 which a justice or judge is seeking retention in office. The ballot shall be divided into 07 four parts. Each part must bear a heading indicating the court to which the candidate is 08 seeking approval, and provision shall be made for marking each question "Yes" or 09 "No." Within each part, the question of whether the justice or judge shall be approved 10 or rejected shall be set out in substantially the following manner: 11 (A) "Shall . . . . . . . be retained as justice of the supreme court 12 for 10 years?"; 13 (B) "Shall . . . . . . . be retained as judge of the court of appeals 14 for eight years?"; 15 (C) "Shall . . . . . . . be retained as judge of the superior court 16 for six years?"; or 17 (D) "Shall . . . . . . . be retained as judge of the district court for 18 four years?" 19 (11) When the legislature by law authorizes a state debt for capital 20 improvements, the director shall place the question of whether the specific 21 authorization shall be ratified by placing the ballot title and question on the next 22 general election ballot, or on the special election ballot if a special election is held for 23 the purpose of ratifying the state debt for capital improvements before the time of the 24 next general election. Unless specifically provided otherwise in the Act authorizing 25 the debt, the ballot title shall, by the use of a few words in a succinct manner, indicate 26 the general subject of the Act. The question shall, by the use of a few sentences in a 27 succinct manner, give a true and impartial summary of the Act authorizing the state 28 debt. The question of whether state debt shall be contracted shall be assigned a letter 29 of the alphabet on the ballot. Provision shall be made for marking the question 30 substantially as follows: 31 "Bonds . . . . . . . Yes" or "Bonds . . . . . . . No,"
01 followed by an appropriate oval. 02 (12) The director may provide for the optical scanning of ballots where 03 the requisite equipment is available. 04 (13) The director may provide for voting by use of electronically 05 generated ballots by a voter who requests to use a machine that produces electronically 06 generated ballots. 07 (14) The director shall include the following statement on the ballot: 08 A candidate's designated affiliation does not imply that 09 the candidate is nominated or endorsed by the political 10 party or group or that the party or group approves of or 11 associates with that candidate, but only that the 12 candidate is registered as affiliated with the political 13 party or political group. 14 (15) Instead of the statement provided by (14) of this section, when 15 candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States appear on a general 16 election ballot, the director shall include the following statement on the ballot: 17 A candidate's designated affiliation does not imply that 18 the candidate is nominated or endorsed by the political 19 party or political group or that the political party or 20 political group approves of or associates with that 21 candidate, but only that the candidate is registered as 22 affiliated with the party or group. The election for 23 President and Vice-President of the United States is 24 different. Some candidates for President and Vice- 25 President are the official nominees of their political 26 party. 27 (16) The director shall design the general election ballots so that the 28 candidates are selected by ranked-choice voting. 29 (17) The director shall design the general election ballot to direct the 30 voter to mark candidates in order of preference and to mark as many choices as the 31 voter wishes, but not to assign the same ranking to more than one candidate for the
01 same office.