03/07/2023 03:30 PM Senate STATE AFFAIRS

              SB   1-ELECTIONS: BALLOT, VOTING, SECURITY                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
4:41:10 PM                                                                                                                    
CHAIR  KAWASAKI  announced  the  consideration  of  SENATE  BILL NO.  1                                                         
"An  Act relating  to  election  security,  voting,  and  ballots;  and                                                         
providing for an effective date."                                                                                               
                                                                                                                                
4:42:13 PM                                                                                                                    
SENATOR   MIKE  SHOWER,   District   O,   Alaska  State   Legislature,                                                          
Juneau,   Alaska,  sponsor   of  SB   1,  stated   that  many  of   the                                                         
provisions  in  SB 1  are similar   to those  in SB  19.  They reflect                                                          
the  bipartisan    efforts  to   improve   the  elections   system   in                                                         
Alaska.  SB  1 addresses   over  registration,  ballot  tracking,   and                                                         
ballot   curing.   The  intent   is  make   the  system   as  fair   as                                                         
possible,  have  processes   to  catch  fraud,  and  restore  faith  in                                                         
the  elections   system.  He  deferred   to  Scott  Ogan  for  further                                                          
introduction of SB 1.                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                
4:45:46 PM                                                                                                                    
SCOTT    OGAN,   Staff,    Senator    Mike   Shower,    Alaska    State                                                         
Legislature,   Juneau,  Alaska,  provided   a high  level   summary  of                                                         
the sponsor statement for SB 1. It read as follows:                                                                             
                                                                                                                                
     Senate   Bill  1  was  drafted  to  address   concerns  with                                                               
     chain  of  custody,  ballot  security,   reporting  election                                                               
     offenses,   preserving   forensic   integrity   of  ballots,                                                               
     multi   factor   authentication    ballot   curing,   ballot                                                               
     tracking,    cybersecurity    and   Legislative    Council's                                                               
     authority to contract with technical experts.                                                                              
                                                                                                                                
     This   measure  is  part   of  the  bill  sponsor's   policy                                                               
     metric   to make  it  easy  to  vote,  yet  hard  to  cheat.                                                               
     When   voting   policy  makes   it   easier  to   vote,  the                                                               
     downside   is to  make  it easier  to  cheat.  This  creates                                                               
     the  public  perception  that our  sacred  right to  vote is                                                               
     ripe  for  fraud  and  undermines   voter  confidence.  When                                                               
     voting  policy  is  to make  it harder  to  cheat,  it makes                                                               
     it  harder   to vote.   This  bill  attempts  to  apply  the                                                               
     policy  metric  of  making  it  easy to  vote,  yet  hard to                                                               
     cheat, which most people can agree upon.                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                
     Ballot  chain  of custody  protocols  must  be strengthened                                                                
     to  assure  every ballot  gets  tracked  from printer  until                                                               
     22  months  after the  election.  Destroying  extra  ballots                                                               
     in  precincts  exposes  the  election  system  to  plausible                                                               
        fraud by destroying forensic integrity of said ballot.                                                                  
                                                                                                                                
        There  is  no widely  published  election   offense  system,                                                            
        nor  is  there   anyone  tasked   with  being  an   election                                                            
        fraud  expert  in the  Department  of  Law or  the  Division                                                            
        of  Elections.  Election  laws are  complex  and confusing.                                                             
        Creating   an   election    offense   hotline   with   staff                                                            
        trained  in  understanding   potential   fraud  issues  will                                                            
         keep people accountable and build public confidence.                                                                   
                                                                                                                                
   MR. OGAN  described  multi-factor   authentication   and advised  that                                                       
   more  information   was  in  the  bill  packets.  SB  1  requires  the                                                       
   director  to  write   and  implement  a  cybersecurity   plan  and   it                                                      
   authorizes   Legislative   Council  to   hire  technical   experts   to                                                      
    conduct forensic audits to verify the security of an election.                                                              
                                                                                                                                
   4:51:24 PM                                                                                                                 
   CHAIR  KAWASAKI  turned to  Jim  Stocker who  was  invited  to provide                                                       
   testimony  by  the  sponsor's  office.  He  summarized  Mr.  Stocker's                                                       
   biography,  which  includes  some  months  of citizen  involvement   on                                                      
   voting issues.                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                                
   4:51:52 PM                                                                                                                 
   JIM STOCKER,  representing   self, Palmer,  Alaska,  provided  invited                                                       
   testimony  in support  of SB  1. He described  SB  1 as a  great start                                                       
   to  restore  system  integrity   and  voter  confidence.   He  relayed                                                       
   that he  had  provided  front-line  testimony  the  last seven  months                                                       
   about  Alaska's  voting  system  and  his perception   was that  voter                                                       
   confidence  was  crashing.  He said  this  was reflected  in  the poll                                                       
   numbers  for   the  last  election.   He  relayed   that  his  current                                                       
   effort  was  focused   on  gathering   signatures   to  eliminate  the                                                       
   voter initiative   for ranked  choice  voting. He  also recounted  his                                                       
   efforts  in  the  MatSu  Valley  to  eliminate  the  use  of  Dominion                                                       
   voting machines.                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                
   MR. STOCKER  described  the  four major  concern  of voters  he speaks                                                       
   to.  These  are  ranked  choice  voting,  Dominion   voting  machines,                                                       
   the reason  it  takes so  long to  count  votes and  voter  rolls, and                                                       
   why   the  state   uses   the   nonprofit,   nonpartisan    Electronic                                                       
   Registration  Information  Center  (ERIC)  system.  He said  he'd just                                                       
   become  aware  that  states  like  Missouri,   Florida,  and  Virginia                                                       
   announced they would no longer use this system.                                                                              
                                                                                                                                
   4:55:09 PM                                                                                                                 
   SENATOR BJORKMAN requested an explanation of the ERIC system.                                                                
                                                                                                                                
   MR.  STOCKER   said   ERIC   is  the   acronym   for  the   Electronic                                                       
   Registration   Information  Center   whose  objective  is  to  improve                                                       
   the accuracy  of  voter registration.   He said  it's obvious  that  it                                                      
doesn't   work   because   the   numbers   don't   match   and  former                                                          
President  Trump  has  encouraged  GOP  governors  to  stop  using  the                                                         
system.  He encouraged   people  who were  interested  to  look at  who                                                         
founded  and funded  ERIC.  He continued   that if  he were  to make  a                                                         
statement   based  on  pure   conjecture,   he'd  say  the  system   is                                                         
criminal.                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                
4:56:23 PM                                                                                                                    
SENATOR  BJORKMAN  asked if  it was  his understanding   that the  ERIC                                                         
system  provided  a  way  for  states  to track  whether   people  were                                                         
also  registered   to  vote   in  another  state   so  they  could   be                                                         
removed from the voter rolls.                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                
MR.  STOCKER  said that's  the  objective  but it's  not  working.  His                                                         
belief  is  that  in Alaska  there  are  more  ballots  sent  out  than                                                         
the  number of  registered  voters  on the  rolls  and it  seems to  be                                                         
that  way  in  other  states.   He  acknowledged  that   he  wasn't  an                                                         
expert and encouraged the committee to take a deeper look.                                                                      
                                                                                                                                
4:57:36 PM                                                                                                                    
SENATOR  BJORKMAN  asked  if  there  was  a  timeline  states  have  to                                                         
follow  before  they  remove  someone  if  they  are not  found  to  be                                                         
registered in another state.                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
MR. STOCKER said he didn't know.                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                
SENATOR  BJORKMAN  commented  that  it would  be  interesting  to  know                                                         
whether  the  ERIC system  speeds  the  process  for removing  someone                                                          
from the voter rolls.                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                
4:58:21 PM                                                                                                                    
MR.  OGAN offered  his  understanding  that  plus  or minus  30 states                                                          
participate   in  the  ERIC   system.  What   it  does  is  crosscheck                                                          
whether  or  not people  are  registered  to  vote  in another  state.                                                          
He noted  that  the Public  Interest  Legal  Foundation  has developed                                                          
best  practices  for  a 50-state   solution.  It  uses more  databases                                                          
to update voter rolls.                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                
4:59:09 PM                                                                                                                    
SENATOR  SHOWER  added  that ERIC  has  a twofold  problem.  First,  it                                                         
violates  the  National  Voting  Rights  Act  of 1964  and  second,  it                                                         
isn't  a  government  entity  so  there  is  no oversight   from  state                                                         
government.   He  continued  that   without  a  true  forensic  audit,                                                          
nobody  can  say definitively   that  there was  or  was not  fraud  in                                                         
the  last election.   He concluded  that  the  goal of  SB 1  is to  do                                                         
better with elections.                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                
   5:01:17 PM                                                                                                                 
   SENATOR  WIELECHOWSKI   asked   whether  the  Division   of  Elections                                                       
   (DOE) would appear before the committee again on Thursday.                                                                   
                                                                                                                                
   CHAIR  KAWASAKI   confirmed  that   the  committee   would  hear  from                                                       
   several elections officials on Thursday.                                                                                     
                                                                                                                                
   SENATOR  WIELECHOWSKI   said   he'd  be  interested   in  hearing  the                                                       
   division  discuss  the  concerns  that  have  been  articulated  today                                                       
   and whether   they merit  further  scrutiny.   He emphasized   that  if                                                      
   the  claims  are  accurate   they  need  to  be  fixed,  and  if  they                                                       
   aren't accurate the public should be informed.                                                                               
                                                                                                                                
   5:02:54 PM                                                                                                                 
   SENATOR  MERRICK  asked  the  sponsor  to describe   a forensic  audit                                                       
   and how it differs from a regular audit.                                                                                     
                                                                                                                                
   SENATOR  SHOWER   clarified   that  the  accurate   term  was  a  risk                                                       
   limiting  audit.  It entails   a look  into  the system  to  determine                                                       
   whether  people   on  the  voter  rolls  are  actually   eligible  and                                                       
   appropriately registered to vote.                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                
   5:05:12 PM                                                                                                                 
   MR. OGAN  directed  attention   to a  document  in  the packet  titled                                                       
   "De-weaponizing   and Standardizing   the  Post-Election  Audit"  that                                                       
   outlines the parameters for credible audits.                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                
   CHAIR  KAWASAKI  thanked  the  sponsor   and  other  participants  and                                                       
   held SB 1 in committee.