SB 39-BALLOT CUSTODY/TAMPERING; VOTER REG; MAIL  4:27:34 PM CHAIR SHOWER announced the consideration of SENATE BILL NO. 39 "An Act relating to elections; relating to voter registration; relating to ballots and a system of tracking and accounting for ballots; establishing an election offense hotline; designating as a class A misdemeanor the collection of ballots from other voters; designating as a class C felony the intentional opening or tampering with a sealed ballot, certificate, or package of ballots without authorization from the director of the division of elections; and providing for an effective date." He asked the invited testifiers to talk about what they saw during the previous election cycle. 4:28:47 PM ELLYN ZETERA, representing self, Copper Center, Alaska, reported that she received two ballots in the mail in the second or third week of October 2020. She threw the first one away in aggravation because she intended to vote in person. A second ballot arrived a week later and she threw it away as well. She related that she believed that all Alaskans were receiving ballots by mail because of the "hard push for the ballots being mailed in." Sometime in the second week of December, she received an apology letter from the lieutenant governor stating that there "was an incident involving exposure of personally identifiable information." She said she was given a one-year subscription to Equifax Credit Watch Gold. Despite the exposure, she said she was assured that the election was legitimate and her vote was not affected. MS. ZETERA stated that she questions the entire election because she received two ballots by mail and then her identity was stolen. 4:31:11 PM CHAIR SHOWER asked if she understands the difference between a ballot application and a ballot because the Division of Elections has said, "in most cases if not all, those were not ballots; they were applications." He asked her to state for the record that she understands the difference between ballots and applications. MS. ZETERA replied, "They were ballots due to the fact when I opened them, there was nowhere for me to sign or sign up for it. I received ballots that had the circles to fill out as well as the names of individuals I was able to vote for." CHAIR SHOWER asked her to confirm that she did not request the ballots. MS. ZETERA replied, "No, I did not request them." CHAIR SHOWER asked if she voted in person. MS. ZETERA answered yes. CHAIR SHOWER restated, "You got ballots you did not request and you also received a letter from the state saying your data was compromised. Is that all true?" MS. ZETERA answered yes. CHAIR SHOWER found no questions and recognized the next invited testifier. 4:32:57 PM ARNIE OYDNA, representing self, Juneau, Alaska, stated that he also received an unsolicited ballot. He added, "I know the difference between application and a ballot. This was a ballot." 4:33:48 PM KENNY SKAFLESTAD representing self, Hoonah, Alaska, related his experience of encountering someone on the street in Hoonah who was carrying a briefcase with printed ballots and offering to help people complete their ballots. The next day he received three phone calls from neighbors who had people carrying ballots come to their doors. He said the experience was upsetting for some of these people. CHAIR SHOWER asked if he reported this to the Division of Elections or law enforcement. MR. SKAFLESTAD said no. CHAIR SHOWER asked if he would be willing to contact his office after the meeting to discuss forwarding the information to law enforcement. MR. SKAFLESTAD agreed to do so. 4:36:45 PM BRIAN ENDLE, representing self, Palmer, Alaska, stated that he has dealt with election integrity over the last year. He provided his credentials and described himself as a computer programmer. He related that the election integrity group he works with made a presentation to the governor and another to the lieutenant governor. The latter presentation is on the Alaska Republican Assembly website alaskara.com and it made the point that "It is impossible to guarantee the validity or integrity of an election with electronic voting machines. The only way to ensure a valid election is with paper ballots and with hand counting election results upon request from either party." He said he demonstrated with YouTube videos that electronic voting machines can be manipulated. "We showed the actual voting machine that's used in the Mat-Su Valley being hacked," he said. He offered the following suggestions: use paper ballots, get rid of electronic voting machines, reregister every year, require voter ID, have strict rules for absentee voting, require showing ID in person, no mail-in ballots, no ballot harvesting, forensic audit of 2020 voting machines, comprehensive audit of 2020 Alaska votes - particularly absentee ballots, and ballot counting at the precinct level. He noted that he sent the chair a complete version of his suggestions. CHAIR SHOWER advised that the bill was not focused on the voting machines. 4:40:34 PM TERRI LYONS, representing self, Wasilla, Alaska, stated that she and her deceased husband received ballots for the primary and general election. She threw the ballots away and voted in person. She related that she followed the chair's suggestion to go to the elections office to find out whether her vote counted, but the Wasilla office was closed due to COVID-19. She tried to call the Anchorage office multiple times but was unable to speak to anyone. She does not know if either she or her deceased husband were shown as having voted. "I think this voting fraud is out of hand and we need to get a handle on it and get it stopped." CHAIR SHOWER asked for confirmation that she received ballots that she did not request and she understands the difference between a ballot and an application. MS. LYONS answered that is true. CHAIR SHOWER asked if she received a letter from the state saying her data was compromised. MS. LYONS replied she did not get a letter. 4:42:38 PM VIOLA AMBERG, representing self, Copper Center, Alaska, related her experience taking her elderly, wheelchair bound father to the local library to vote. Because he was unable to go into the building, she took his ID inside and asked if an election worker could go to the car and witness his vote. An election worker said that her father did not need to have his vote witnessed and it was not necessary to show his ID. She took a ballot out to the car and helped her father fill it out but questioned how it could be legal. "There was just no quality control at all," she said. 4:45:03 PM SUSI SEIBERT, representing self, Trapper Creek, Alaska, reported that she received two ballot applications about a week apart and burned both. About two weeks after that she received two ballots in the mail and she burned those as well. She early voted and then went on holiday for about six weeks. When she returned, she had a letter "stating that my vote might have been breached or compromised." She tried to look online to see whether her vote counted, but she was unsuccessful navigating the system. "So I don't know if my vote counted or not." 4:46:54 PM CHAIR SHOWER asked if it was true that she received both applications and ballots that she did not request. MS. SEIBERT replied, "I am 100 percent positive I received ballots after I threw away applications." CHAIR SHOWER asked if it was true that she received a letter from the state advising that her data had been compromised. MS. SEIBERT answered yes. 4:47:37 PM SENATOR HOLLAND restated that Ms. Seibert received two ballot applications followed by two ballots. He asked if that was correct. MS. SEIBERT replied, "That is correct." 4:47:53 PM BARBARA HANEY, representing self, North Pole, Alaska, stated that she works for a legislator but was calling on her own behalf. She related that she frequently consults the voter database because she fields questions from people in several districts. When people come in with questions she looks up the person's district and lets their representative know that their constituent has a certain problem. MS. HANEY assured the committee that the voter database has some problems. She sent about 5,000 letters to new voters since the prior election and about 15 percent were returned as "addressee unknown." She said the database also has quite a number of voters who have passed, who no longer vote, and some who are not citizens. She opined that until the database is cleaned up, anybody remotely interested in integrity would support SB 39. CHAIR SHOWER said everyone should be concerned about getting the election system as tight as possible. It is difficult to believe that anybody could say nothing needs to be done. MS. HANEY added that her late husband was an immigrant and he received volumes of mail from the Voter Information Center. She later learned that anybody with the political affiliation U or N was targeted. CHAIR SHOWER said he does not know who committed the data breach or how the information was used. MS. HANEY thanked the chair for his work on the legislation and said she had a few ideas about how to clean up the voter rolls. CHAIR SHOWER welcomed her ideas. 4:58:10 PM CHAIR SHOWER held SB 39 in committee.