Legislature(2021 - 2022)GRUENBERG 120
04/27/2022 01:00 PM House JUDICIARY
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB161 | |
| HB5 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | SB 161 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | HB 5 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
SB 161-POLITICAL PARTY DEFINITION
1:08:50 PM
CHAIR CLAMAN announced that the first order of business would be
CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 161(JUD), "An Act relating to the
definition of 'political party'; and providing for an effective
date." [Before the committee was HCS CSSB 161(STA).]
1:09:11 PM
DAVID DUNSMORE, Staff, Senator Bill Wielechowski, Alaska State
Legislature, presented HSC CSSB 161(STA) on behalf of Senator
Wielechowski, prime sponsor. He explained that the proposed
legislation would simplify the process for political parties to
gain recognition. He described the current threshold for
official party recognition as "variable," as it is based on the
voter turnout from the most recent general election. He
explained that the proposed legislation would change the
threshold to an even 5,000 voters, and after every centennial
census the number of voters would be adjusted based on
population changes and then rounded to the nearest 500. Because
the current threshold is based on voter turnout, he said, the
threshold can fluctuate wildly after a record voter turnout.
This creates a paradoxical problem because midterm election
turnout is lower; thus, political parties would have to meet a
higher threshold to be on the ballot. He stated that since the
passage of Ballot Measure 2 [in 2020] political parties would
only have automatic rights in the election for the office of the
U.S. presidency. He stated that having official party status
guarantees the ability to purchase two pages in the official
election pamphlet, nominate election workers, and have poll
watchers.
1:11:58 PM
VICE CHAIR SNYDER, referring to the sponsor statement [copy
included in the committee packet], addressed the sentence, which
read as follows [original punctuation provided]: "This threshold
can vary wildly from election to election and after the 2020
election it increased by 27% because of record voter turnout."
She requested clarification on the use of the word "it" in the
statement.
1:12:29 PM
MR. DUNSMORE responded that "it" refers to the threshold, which
is the total number of registered voters a party must have to
retain official status. He explained that the number increased
because the voter turnout in 2020 had been 27 percent higher
than in 2018.
1:12:58 PM
MR. DUNSMORE, in response to a follow-up question, confirmed
that the number of votes required to reach the 3 percent
threshold increased by 27 percent in the 2020 election. He
explained that prior to Ballot Measure 2 there had been 2 ways
to achieve party status. A party could have registered voters
which equaled 3 percent of the number of voters, or, in the
previous election, the party's top ticket candidate would need
to have received 3 percent of the vote. He said that Ballot
Measure 2 changed the process, and now the only way to meet the
threshold would be through voter registration.
1:13:54 PM
CHAIR CLAMAN referenced the amendment adopted to the proposed
legislation by the House State Affairs Standing Committee in its
[04/21/2022] meeting, which deleted the language "represents a
political program". He requested Mr. Dunsmore speak to the
deletion of the language, and he questioned whether the deletion
should be undone.
1:14:28 PM
MR. DUNSMORE responded that after the proposed legislation moved
out of the previous committee of referral, Legislative Legal
Services sent a memorandum pointing out that the language change
could be tied to the operation of the statute in regard to
appointments to vacancies in the legislature. He clarified that
the change was thought to be stylistic, and the intention of the
amendment was not to change the statute in this way. He advised
the committee that reverting back to the language passed out of
the Senate may be wise.
1:16:07 PM`
REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS suggested that maintaining the
language in the legislation would maintain parallelism in the
statutes.
MR. DUNSMORE responded in the affirmative.
1:16:35 PM
VICE CHAIR SNYDER expressed the understanding that, in terms of
the proposed legislation, "political party" means an organized
group of voters with at least 5,000 registered voters. She
pointed out that a political party would not exist until 5,000
voters have been registered, and she questioned how voters would
register in a political party which does not exist.
MR. DUNSMORE responded that this is provided elsewhere in
statute, and he would follow up after the meeting with this
information. He said to achieve official status the party's
bylaws would need to be submitted to the Division of Elections,
and then the party would be added to the voter registration
form. He explained that every month the division updates the
voter list, and when the number hits the threshold, the party
would be qualified for the election.
1:18:01 PM
CHAIR CLAMAN opened public testimony on SB 161. After
ascertaining that there was no one who wished to testify, he
closed public testimony.
1:18:35 PM
The committee took an at-ease from 1:18 p.m. to 1:20 p.m.
[SB 161 was held over.]