Legislature(2023 - 2024)ANCH LIO DENALI Rm
12/19/2024 01:00 PM House JUDICIARY
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| Audio | Topic |
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| Start | |
| Presentation(s): 2024 Alaska Primary and General Elections | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE JUDICIARY STANDING COMMITTEE
Anchorage, Alaska
December 19, 2024
1:02 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Sarah Vance, Chair
Representative Ben Carpenter
Representative Andrew Gray
Representative Cliff Groh (via teleconference)
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Jamie Allard, Vice Chair
Representative Craig Johnson
Representative Jesse Sumner
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATION(S): 2024 ALASKA PRIMARY AND GENERAL ELECTIONS
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
CAROL BEECHER, Director
Divisions of Elections
Office of the Lieutenant Governor
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented a PowerPoint during the 2024
Alaska Primary and General Elections presentation.
TOM FLYNN, Assistant Attorney General
Labor and State Affairs Section
Civil Division (Anchorage)
Department of Law
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Answered questions during the 2024 Alaska
Primary and General Elections presentation.
ACTION NARRATIVE
1:02:57 PM
CHAIR VANCE called the House Judiciary Standing Committee
meeting to order at [1:02] p.m. Representatives Gray,
Carpenter, Groh (via teleconference), and Vance were present at
the call to order.
^PRESENTATION(S): 2024 Alaska Primary and General Elections
PRESENTATION(S): 2024 Alaska Primary and General Elections
1:03:40 PM
CHAIR VANCE announced that the only order of business would be
the 2024 Alaska Primary and General Elections presentation.
1:05:22 PM
CAROL BEECHER, Director, Divisions of Elections (DOE), Office of
the Lieutenant Governor, directed attention to a PowerPoint
presentation, entitled "Division of Elections," dated 12/19/24
[hardcopy included in the committee packet]. She began by
sharing general information about the division's 35 permanent
staff members who are required to remain neutral and sign an
oath of impartiality, voter registration per AS 15.05.101, and
citizenship as it relates to voter registration. Voters must
certify that they are a citizen by affirming it on the [voter
registration form], the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV)
registration form, or the permanent fund dividend (PFD)
automatic voter registration (AVR). The department is not
responsible for further investigating an applicant's
citizenship. In response to a series of questions from
Representative Gray, she explained that a person who moved to a
new district within 30 days before Election Day could vote the
full ballot from their prior district or vote a question ballot
from their new district.
1:11:02 PM
MS. BEECHER resumed the presentation on slide 5 and addressed
PFD AVR. New applicants and those with an address change are
sent a notice letting them know they will be automatically
registered unless they opt out within 30 days. Filing for a PFD
is defined as "appearing to vote" for purposes of remaining
active in the voter registration system per AS 15.07.135. In
response to a series of questions from Representative Carpenter,
she indicated that third parties do not audit the division's
processes and that all analyses are done internally by the
division. She noted that the official election pamphlet (OEP)
is checked by DOE staff as well.
1:17:07 PM
The committee took a brief at-ease at 1:17 p.m.
1:17:45 PM
MS. BEECHER acknowledged the error on the official election
pamphlet (OEP) and said the division is looking into ways to
stop that from happening again. She encouraged noncitizens who
receive voter cards from the PFD AVR to notify the division so
it can work with the Permanent Fund Dividend Division (PFDD) to
fix its coding. However, based on information received by the
division, noncitizens are not being sent voter cards. In
response to questions from Chair Vance, she confirmed that the
division is not statutorily required to perform additional
verification of citizenship.
1:21:28 PM
TOM FLYNN, Assistant Attorney General, Labor and State Affairs
Section, Civil Division (Anchorage), Department of Law (DOL), in
response to a series of questions from Chair Vance, confirmed
that DOE is not required to perform additional citizenship
verification and warned against the limits of the National Voter
Registration Act.
1:22:54 PM
MS. BEECHER, in response to a series of questions from members,
said ballots were rejected if the voter indicated on the ballot
that they were not a citizen; DOE is precluded from requesting
additional documentation for proof of citizenship; voter cards
are sent by mail, as required by statute.
1:25:51 PM
MS. BEECHER continued the presentation on slide 6 and explained
that for the purpose of determining residency for voting, the
address of a voter as it appears on the official voter
registration record is presumptive evidence of the person's
voting residence. This presumption is negated only if the voter
notifies the director in writing of a change of residence. She
addressed the ballots with the incorrect judicial district in
Judicial Region 4, explaining that there was an internal error
on the ballot order form. She said the impacted individuals
were notified immediately and given the opportunity to vote a
new ballot. In response to a question from Representative Gray
regarding an early voting mishap in Kotzebue, Utqiagvik, and
Bethel during the 2024 primary election, she clarified that the
issue was in relation to absentee in-person voting (AVO) and
came down to a misunderstanding about which ballots to use. In
response to a series of questions from Chair Vance, she said
each year, the division hosts a debriefing of the election
season to discuss issues that occurred and how to solve them.
The division meets regularly with United State Postal Service
(USPS) employees to ensure that materials and ballots arrive on
time. With regard to the election bag that was found on the
road, the division has no control over materials once they are
in the custody of USPS. In response to a series of questions
from Representative Carpenter, she confirmed that policies and
procedures guide daily workflow and are revised and updated
every odd year.
1:43:39 PM
MS. BEECHER, in response to a series of questions from
Representative Gray and Chair Vance, said there is no cure
process, so if someone makes an error on their absentee ballot,
they are notified after the election. In the case of the
ballots with the wrong judicial district, the mistake was
considered an "agency error," so affected voters were able to
re-vote with a correct ballot. The division is indifferent on
whether a cure process should be implemented, as this would be a
policy call for the legislature. Many ballots were rejected
because voters forgot to include a witness signature. In person
voters can fix a spoiled ballot by ripping up the spoiled ballot
in front of election officials and revoting a fresh ballot.
Spoiled ballots are retained for 22 months and used by the State
Review Board when accounting for ballots. Not all communities
choose to be an AVO location. To avoid double voting, early in-
person votes are held until after election workers input the
information from the registers. Ballots can be received by e-
mail or fax, but they must be returned by mail. Absentee
ballots postmarked on Election Day are acceptable up to 15 days
after and the information on the envelope is reviewed for
accuracy and proper coding by division staff and Absentee Review
Board members before opening. Observers are in attendance and
given the opportunity to challenge a ballot. The same process
is used for question ballots.
2:03:41 PM
MS. BEECHER continued presentation on slide 9 and described the
process for transmitting election results. Scanner results are
transmitted to the Juneau DOE office with a secured, encrypted
package and an air-gapped server. Hand count results are
tallied and called in to the regional office by the precincts.
Tallies are then scanned and filed to the Juneau DOE office on
election night. Voted ballots and registers are mailed to the
Juneau office. Two precincts attempted to call in and were
unable to get through. Instead, they decided to mail the
information, which caused a delay. In response to a series of
questions by Chair Vance, she said hand counts are literally
done by hand. The division is considering ideas, such as using
Starlink, to expand scanner capabilities and quicken the
process. She discussed the training of poll workers,
specifically those conducting hand counts, on ranked choice
voting (RCV). She confirmed that on Election Day, no workers
were able or willing to open the polls in Wales and Kaktovik.
2:23:22 PM
MS. BEECHER continued the presentation on slide 10 and detailed
the chain of custody and audits. Hand counts are conducted for
one randomly selected house district with 5 percent or more of
the vote to ensure accuracy of scanned results. If there is a
discrepancy of more than 1 percent, the entire district is
recounted by hand. Absentee/Question Review Boards are another
form of auditing for absentee and question ballots. Finally,
the State Review Board reviews all ballot tallies from every
precinct to ensure their accuracy. Once the State Review Board
is satisfied, the results are certified. She outlined vote
counting and transparency, per the processes outlined in AS
15.20.081.
2:33:50 PM
MS. BEECHER, in response to a series of questions from members,
said she would have done the following three things differently
to avoid the mistakes that occurred in the 2024 election: more
thoroughly edit the OEP; ensure that advertising didn't use
names; and better anticipate the level of communication that's
needed. She assured the committee that the division saw no
evidence of fraud, adding that two attorneys observed the entire
recount. The division installed a monitoring system to look for
trends on a large scale. She encouraged voters to take personal
responsibility for safeguarding their information and checking
their My Voter Portal, which is available on
www.elections.alaska.gov. The division implemented BallotTrax
for the congressional special election in 2022; however, it is
no longer being used due to its ineffectiveness. She detailed
the 2020 data breach and said DOE responded by increasing state
security and firewalls, implementing quarterly security
training, engaging with the Cyber Security and Infrastructure
Security Agency (CISA), and certifying equipment by the
Elections Assistance Commission (EAC). In response to questions
from Representative Gray, she reiterated that there was no
evidence in the 2024 election that bad actors voted Alaskans'
absentee ballots without their knowledge. Permanent absentee
voting sites (PAVS) is a designation given to communities within
a precinct that lack the ability to geographically access the
main precinct polling locations.
2:54:55 PM
MS. BEECHER, in response to a series of questions from
Representative Carpenter regarding voter fraud, she said the
division knows when an absentee ballot is requested. Ballots
are rejected if the name on the ballot does not match the name
of the person who requested it. The voter rolls show deceased
individuals and those who have committed a crime of moral
turpitude among the list of inactive voters. These individuals
cannot change their status to "active" without reapplying, in
which case the system would flag them.
3:04:59 PM
MS. BEECHER concluded the presentation on slide 16, which listed
the following lessons learned and ideas for draft legislation:
Lessons:
•Communications
•Mailing Challenges
•Early Voting
•Rural R4
Legislation (draft):
•Regional educational attendance area elections
•PFD applications
•Election administration
•Ballot counting
•Official Election Pamphlets (OEP)
•Voter residence
•Voter registration
•Voting by mail
•Absentee voting
•Confidential information in voter registration
records
•Postage paid return Absentee Envelopes
3:08:27 PM
CHAIR VANCE recommended more checks and balances and training
for election workers. She said the public is counting on more
open dialogue and thanked Ms. Beecher for acknowledging that and
handling the tough questions.
3:10:16 PM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Judiciary Standing Committee meeting was adjourned at [3:10]
p.m.
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