HB 4: "An Act relating to write-in candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States."
00 HOUSE BILL NO. 4 01 "An Act relating to write-in candidates for President and Vice-President of the United 02 States." 03 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 04 * Section 1. AS 15.15.030 is amended to read: 05 Sec. 15.15.030. Preparation of official ballot. The director shall prepare all 06 official ballots to facilitate fairness, simplicity, and clarity in the voting procedure, to 07 reflect most accurately the intent of the voter, and to expedite the administration of 08 elections. The following directives shall be followed when applicable: 09 (1) The director shall determine the size of the ballot, the type of print, 10 necessary additional instruction notes to voters, and other similar matters of form not 11 provided by law. 12 (2) The director shall number ballots in series to ensure simplicity and 13 secrecy and to prevent fraud. 14 (3) The director shall contract for the preparation of ballots under
01 AS 36.30 (State Procurement Code). 02 (4) The director may not include on the ballot, as a part of a candidate's 03 name, any honorary or assumed title or prefix but may include in the candidate's name 04 any nickname or familiar form of a proper name of the candidate. 05 (5) The names of the candidates shall be placed in separate sections on 06 the state general election ballot under the office designation to which they were 07 nominated. If a candidate is registered as affiliated with a political party or political 08 group, the party affiliation, if any, may be designated after the name of the candidate, 09 upon request of the candidate. If a candidate has requested designation as nonpartisan 10 or undeclared, that designation shall be placed after the name of the candidate. If a 11 candidate is not registered as affiliated with a political party or political group and has 12 not requested to be designated as nonpartisan or undeclared, the candidate shall be 13 designated as undeclared. The lieutenant governor and the governor shall be included 14 under the same section. Provision shall be made for voting for write-in candidates 15 within each section. Paper ballots for the state general election shall be printed on 16 white paper. 17 (6) The names of the candidates for each office shall be set out in the 18 same order on ballots printed for use in each house district. The director shall 19 randomly determine the order of the names of the candidates for state representative 20 for each house district. The director shall rotate the order of placement of the names of 21 candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, United States senator, United States 22 representative, and state senator on the ballot for each house district. 23 (7) The general election ballot shall be designed with the names of 24 candidates of each political party, and of any independent candidates qualified under 25 AS 15.30.026, for the office of President and Vice-President of the United States 26 placed in the same section on the ballot rather than the names of electors of President 27 and Vice-President. Provision shall be made for voting for write-in candidates for 28 President and Vice-President. 29 (8) The general or special election ballot shall be designed with the 30 title and proposition for any initiative, referendum, or constitutional amendment 31 formulated as prescribed by law and placed on the ballot in the manner prescribed by
01 the director. When placed on the ballot, a state ballot proposition or ballot question 02 shall carry the number that was assigned to the petition for the proposition or question. 03 Provision shall be made for marking the proposition "Yes" or "No." 04 (9) The general or special election ballot shall be designed with the 05 question of whether a constitutional convention shall be called placed on the ballot in 06 the following manner: "Shall there be a constitutional convention?" Provision shall be 07 made for marking the question "Yes" or "No." 08 (10) A nonpartisan ballot shall be designed for each judicial district in 09 which a justice or judge is seeking retention in office. The ballot shall be divided into 10 four parts. Each part must bear a heading indicating the court to which the candidate is 11 seeking approval, and provision shall be made for marking each question "Yes" or 12 "No." Within each part, the question of whether the justice or judge shall be approved 13 or rejected shall be set out in substantially the following manner: 14 (A) "Shall ....... be retained as justice of the supreme court for 15 10 years?"; 16 (B) "Shall ....... be retained as judge of the court of appeals for 17 eight years?"; 18 (C) "Shall ....... be retained as judge of the superior court for six 19 years?"; or 20 (D) "Shall ....... be retained as judge of the district court for four 21 years?" 22 (11) When the legislature by law authorizes a state debt for capital 23 improvements, the director shall place the question of whether the specific 24 authorization shall be ratified by placing the ballot title and question on the next 25 general election ballot, or on the special election ballot if a special election is held for 26 the purpose of ratifying the state debt for capital improvements before the time of the 27 next general election. Unless specifically provided otherwise in the Act authorizing 28 the debt, the ballot title shall, by the use of a few words in a succinct manner, indicate 29 the general subject of the Act. The question shall, by the use of a few sentences in a 30 succinct manner, give a true and impartial summary of the Act authorizing the state 31 debt. The question of whether state debt shall be contracted shall be assigned a letter
01 of the alphabet on the ballot. Provision shall be made for marking the question 02 substantially as follows: 03 "Bonds....... Yes" or "Bonds....... No," 04 followed by an appropriate oval. 05 (12) The director may provide for the optical scanning of ballots where 06 the requisite equipment is available. 07 (13) The director may provide for voting by use of electronically 08 generated ballots by a voter who requests to use a machine that produces electronically 09 generated ballots. 10 (14) The director shall include the following statement on the ballot: 11 A candidate's designated affiliation does not imply that 12 the candidate is nominated or endorsed by the political 13 party or group or that the party or group approves of or 14 associates with that candidate, but only that the 15 candidate is registered as affiliated with the political 16 party or political group. 17 (15) Instead of the statement provided by (14) of this section, when 18 candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States appear on a general 19 election ballot, the director shall include the following statement on the ballot: 20 A candidate's designated affiliation does not imply that 21 the candidate is nominated or endorsed by the political 22 party or political group or that the political party or 23 political group approves of or associates with that 24 candidate, but only that the candidate is registered as 25 affiliated with the party or group. The election for 26 President and Vice-President of the United States is 27 different. Some candidates for President and Vice- 28 President are the official nominees of their political 29 party. 30 (16) The director shall design the general election ballots so that the 31 candidates are selected by ranked-choice voting.
01 (17) The director shall design the general election ballot to direct the 02 voter to mark candidates in order of preference and to mark as many choices as the 03 voter wishes, but not to assign the same ranking to more than one candidate for the 04 same office. 05 * Sec. 2. AS 15.15.360(d) is amended to read: 06 (d) Write-in votes shall be counted according to the following rules: 07 (1) writing in the name of a candidate whose name is printed on the 08 ballot does not invalidate a write-in vote unless the director determines, on the basis of 09 other evidence, that the ballot was so marked for the purpose of identifying the ballot; 10 (2) in order to vote for a write-in candidate, the voter must write in the 11 candidate's name in the space provided and fill in the oval opposite the candidate's 12 name in accordance with (a)(1) of this section; 13 (3) a vote for a write-in candidate, other than a write-in vote for 14 governor and lieutenant governor or for President and Vice-President of the United 15 States, shall be counted if the oval is filled in for that candidate and if the name of the 16 candidate, as it appears on the write-in declaration of candidacy, or the last name of 17 the candidate is written in the space provided; 18 (4) if the write-in vote is for governor and lieutenant governor, the vote 19 shall be counted if the oval is filled in and the names of the candidates for governor 20 and lieutenant governor, as they appear on the write-in declaration of candidacy, or the 21 last names of the candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, or the name of the 22 candidate for governor, as it appears on the write-in declaration of candidacy, or the 23 last name of the candidate for governor is written in the space provided; 24 (5) if the write-in vote is for President and Vice-President of the 25 United States, the vote shall be counted if the oval is filled in and the names of the 26 candidates for President and Vice-President, as they appear on the write-in 27 declaration of candidacy, or the last names of the candidates for President and 28 Vice-President, or the name of the candidate for President, as it appears on the 29 write-in declaration of candidacy, or the last name of the candidate for President 30 is written in the space provided; 31 (6) in counting votes for a write-in candidate, the director shall
01 disregard any abbreviation, misspelling, or other minor variation in the form of the 02 name of a candidate if the intention of the voter can be ascertained. 03 * Sec. 3. AS 15.25.105 is amended by adding a new subsection to read: 04 (d) A write-in candidate running for the office of President of the United 05 States must file a letter with the director certifying the information required under 06 AS 15.30.026(b).