Legislature(1997 - 1998)
02/12/1998 08:02 AM House STA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 259 - VOTER LISTS & VOTER REGISTRATION CHAIR JAMES announced the next order of business is HB 259, "An Act relating to the maintenance of voter lists and to the inactivation and cancellation of voter registration; and providing for an effective date," Rules by request of the governor. Number 0558 GAIL FENUMIAI, Election Coordinator, Division of Elections, Office of the Lieutenant Governor, testified before the committee. She said, since implementation of the National Voter Registration Act in 1993, the Division of Elections has not been able to conduct list maintenance on the voter list. She indicated the numbers have been growing, the list has inaccurate addresses and contains names of people who are no longer in the state. She mentioned the National Voter Registration Act does not allow the division to remove voters solely on the purpose for non-voting. MS. FENUMIAI pointed out legislation was passed in 1996 by the Alaska State Legislature in an attempt to bring our state law into compliance with federal law. She said, "When we submitted the law for preclearance, the Department of Justice implied that it had some problematic areas with that as far as the National Voter Registration Act. They felt the law just targeted non-voters as a reason for removing people. This bill [HB 259] will expand the group of people that we will be sending notices to, it's basically no contact, people who have not contacted the division." Number 0573 MS. FENUMIAI said the Division of Elections would like to, in the first year, send notices to all registered voters, both on the active and inactive lists to get clean addresses. This would be beneficial to the division and will save money over time, and as far as printing official election pamphlets, ballots, election supplies, candidates would also save money on mailing lists. She said, "We know that some of the addresses that are provided to the candidates, people aren't there anymore and it costs. Public perception also, those people who are on our list as active voters that don't vote because they are no longer here. Our voter statistics, our voter turnout seems to get lower each year because of those facts." MS. FENUMIAI stated all registered voters would be mailed a confirmation and address card. And the registration records, of all those who returned their cards with updated information, would be updated in our voter registration system and new voter identification cards would be sent to them if needed. She said, "The cards that were going to be returned by postal service with a new address, those folks would then be sent a second notice which is mandated by the federal law to confirm their new address. They would have 45 days to respond to that second notice. If they did not respond to that second notice they would be placed on an inactive list for the next two federal general elections. And if there was no voter contact during that period, the voter then would be deleted. If there was contact, the voter then would become activated and would remain on the roll. Voters responding to the second notice accordingly their records would be updated as well." MS. FENUMIAI said federal law also requires that the postage for this is paid by the state so there is no cost to the voter. She mentioned the majority of the cost in the fiscal note is printing the notices and postage. Number 0607 REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY asked Ms. Fenumiai to explain the benefits to the state of Alaska. He said, "There is no question the United States Justice Department, when it comes to voters rights is out in left field. The last ten years, the United States Supreme Court has been pounding them into the ground on (indisc.) they have been giving states. At some point, before we start going out and spending a half million bucks here, and a half million bucks there, somebody should consider the cost of benefit ratio of just taking the Justice Department to court. Because the Supreme Court is not upholding their guidelines that they are putting out. They're mandating who (indisc.) law to use the guidelines that you follow. Now I would go as far as to say the Voters Rights Act has gone beyond the constitutional authority of the federal government to dictate to the states how it conducts elections. Based on considerable amount of experience with the Justice Department, regarding the Voters Rights Act, I think we're just throwing money down the drain here. I do agree that the law we passed, and I think it was in 1995, maybe 1996, I was adamantly opposed to that then and I remain opposed to it. There is an alternative and that's to go to court to defend your rights against a Justice Department which has got a terrible record before the Supreme Court over the last ten years." Number 0626 MS. FENUMIAI deferred to the Department of Law. REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY repeated what is the advantage of the state of Alaska in passing HB 259, because the justice department said so is like taking the Fifth Amendment. MS. FENUMIAI believed the benefits to having accurate lists would improve public perception of our voter lists because they are inaccurate. People who are on the active voter lists, are out of the state. and do not vote, count toward the total number of registered voters so voter turn out is lower because they are not here to vote. Money would be saved to the Division of Elections over time in printing less official election pamphlets. Ms. Fenumiai indicated some ballots are returned in the mail. If they are able to remove people from the lists, they would be able to print less ballots, and order less election supplies. MS. FENUMIAI concluded, "The public would be saving, when the list is purchased by private companies, by candidates for campaign purposes, for political purposes. We know that there are bad addresses on there and you would be saving money in printing and postage as well." REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY asked who besides political candidates use voter registration lists. MS. FENUMIAI replied there are numerous private companies that purchase their lists for a variety of reasons, commercial reasons. REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY asked are they willing to pay to clean up the list. MS. FENUMIAI stated she did not know. REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY said improving our percentage of voter turn out seems to be a nebulous goal, he believes Alaska has the highest percentage in the nation right now. Representative Vezey asked who are we trying to beat. Number 0655 MS. FENUMIAI answered, "We looked back over the voter turn out over the years and when the list was more manageable, when it was in a more accurate state, voter turn out was high 60s, low 70s. We experienced last general election, a turn out of about 59 percent, which we felt would have increased a fair amount if our lists had, if the inactive and people who are just no longer in the state that cannot vote are off the list then that number would drop and it would increase the voter turn out percentage." REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY asked what is the benefit to Alaskans if we increase our percentage report of voter turn out. MS. FENUMIAI believed, if people see that there is low voter turn out, it might discourage people from voting. REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY asked why do we need to fund extra money to do this if we are going to save money. MS. FENUMIAI said, "We don't have exact figures on how much money would be saved. We know that over time we would be printing less official election pamphlets, we would be having to order less ballots - I don't have concrete hard numbers on those." REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY indicated he was not convinced of this legislation [HB 259]. Number 0678 REPRESENTATIVE IVAN mentioned his main concern was in purging names from the voters lists, he asked how inactive must a voter be to be removed from the list. MS. FENUMIAI replied the division hopes to send a confirmation notice to everybody that is registered. In subsequent years, the division will send a confirmation notice to individuals whose mail has been returned as undeliverable in the preceding two years, those who have not contacted the division, to inquire about their voters' registration, to request a new voter identification card, have not signed an initiative petition, have not applied to vote by absentee, and also those who have not voted or appeared to have voted in previous two general elections. REPRESENTATIVE IVAN asked what type of notification will be mailed. He indicated his concern is some of his constituents read little or no English. Number 0697 MS. FENUMIAI said it was the Division of Elections intent to send a postage card advising them of the information the division has on the voters' registration and asking them if this information is correct. If not, could they please update the card. It would be written as simply as possible, the city clerks may assist those who have difficulty in reading or writing English. REPRESENTATIVE IVAN referred to page 2, line 16, "...procedures set out in 42 U.S.C. [code]" He asked what do those procedures cover. MS. FENUMIAI replied the procedures cover what is basically in HB 259. She indicated she had copies available and would provide the members copies. Number 0710 REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY asked if there were regulations for the election pamphlet. MS. FENUMIAI replied, "...statute." TAPE 98-16, SIDE B Number 0053 REPRESENTATIVE HODGINS said there are other savings. He indicated he operates a post office, they have to forward a lot of the information, it creates a lot of extra work and a lot of extra manpower and resources devoted to that. He said, "Any time we can clean the lists up, while it may not impact the people we think it does, it certainly would impact the postal service and those kind of things." He encouraged the committee to go forward with HB 259. Number 0150 KATHLEEN STRASBAUGH, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, Department of Law, testified before the committee. She said, "There are several cases in which the constitutionality of the NVRA [National Voter Registration Act] has been upheld with respect to 'state's rights'. And one of the more notable decisions is ACORN [Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now] versus Edgar, the governor of Illinois. It was decided in the Seventh Circuit which looks out for state's rights, so it has sustained several challenges. Also, the state of California is another notable case which lost an effort to try to challenge the constitutionality of the law." MS. STRASBAUGH said, "Secondly, the -- I certainly want to preserve all of my options as the person likely to defend this suit, but it's not -- our present language does raise some questions about whether you're being targeted for non-voting only in the purge process and this way you have to completely lose contact. ...If somebody goes to the polls and their name is not on the list or (indisc.) order, the poll officials could take all down. The question ballot sleeve is also a registration form. Another benefit I might add in that regard, is that this is already the Division of Elections' practice, this enshrines it in statute. It simply isn't clear from the statute that the division already does all these, and somebody phones, things get corrected -- questions, sign a petition. And so somebody would have to fall off the face of the earth literally to get purged because every contact they come into with an election's official should result in an update of the information." Number 0284 CHAIRMAN JAMES asked if the fiscal note came from doing a mass mailing. MS. STRASBAUGH replied yes. If HB 259 does not pass, probably wholesale mailing is about the only thing elections would probably be able to do under the current (indisc. paper noise). It is addressed primarily to the fact that we cannot target now, we have a mess that is almost five years old. Number 0324 CHAIR JAMES said, "The current threat of suit." MS. STRASBAUGH replied, "I think we supplied you the letter. We had our bill pre-cleared by the justice department for the purpose of the Civil rights Act - the voting rights Act, but for the National Voter Registration Act, the justice department said they didn't like our bill as it currently was constituted because it appears to target nonvoters according to them and we are trying to fix the language to be more consistent with the federal law but it has the advantage of citifying practices we already have, making it clear that we have them, that is responding to contact and avoiding -- there are other bones I might have to pick, but this isn't one frankly that I - I think is a good idea." Number 0386 CHAIR JAMES indicated this might give Representative Vezey comfort if HB 259 does not meet the concerns of the justice department. The state is not necessarily conforming to their ideas, we are taking our own. Number 0414 REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY mentioned he is not aware of any cases that have gone before the supreme court in the past ten years where the policies of the justice department have been upheld. He said, "Not the law, I'm saying the policies -- the justice department takes the law and says this is the way we're going to enforce it. On the same line I'm not aware of any cases that have gone through any courts that have to do with state's rights to use some reasonable standard for purging of nonactive voters. I believe most laws have gone in have had to do with registering voters and not purging voting lists." MS. STRASBAUGH said, "The Illinois case was that practices of the state of Illinois were challenged in many particulars including the purge procedure. The justice department doesn't appear to have been losing this type of case. The type of case that Representative Vezey is referring to is some other extreme positions taken in two or three cases in the south by the justice department for redistricting in which they continued to maximize representation, even after having been instructed by congress and the courts not to... I don't think this falls into the same category as the redistricting case." REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY said he believes she said there have not been any cases before the supreme court involving voter registration, not involving purging voters. Number 0550 MS. STRASBAUGH replied no, she did not mean to represent that there has been a supreme court challenge. She believes, in the cases she mentioned, one case covered comprehensive practices, not just the provision of voter registration. REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY said, "I would correct one comment you made, that in 1991 the justice department was telling states to maximize minority representation. The justice department was, the supreme court came back the early 1990s and says no way, Jose." CHAIR JAMES asked for a motion to move HB 259 out of committee. Number 0588 REPRESENTATIVE HODGINS made a motion to move HB 259 out of committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal note. REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY objected. Number 0605 CHAIR JAMES requested a roll call vote. Representatives Dyson, Hodgins, Ivan and Chair James voted in support of moving HB 259 from committee. Representative Vezey voted against it. Therefore HB 259 moved from the House State Affairs Standing Committee. CHAIR JAMES called for an at ease and turned the House State Affairs Standing Committee meeting over to Vice Chairman Ivan.
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