SENATE BILL NO. 64 "An Act relating to elections; relating to voters; relating to voting; relating to voter preregistration for minors at least 16 years of age; relating to voter registration; relating to the Alaska Public Offices Commission; relating to synthetic media in electioneering communications; relating to campaign signs; relating to public official financial disclosures; relating to the crime of unlawful interference with voting in the first degree; and providing for an effective date." 9:19:34 AM SENATOR BILL WIELECHOWSKI, SPONSOR, introduced the bill. He relayed that the bill was a comprehensive package of reforms aimed at removing barriers to voting, cleaning up voting rolls, reporting election results faster, and making needed changes to Alaska election laws. The bill included provisions from 12 previous bills by members of all four caucuses and the governor. The Senate State Affairs Committee had worked to refine the bill over 8 meetings. The bill removed barriers to voting by creating a ballot curing process that allowed voters to correct mistakes and repealed the witness signature requirement that disproportionately affected rural and military voters. The witness signature was never verified and had previously disenfranchised roughly 10 percent of the voters throughout rural Alaska in the special election in 2022. In 2024, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) had more mail ballots rejected than any other district in the state. He did not think it was a partisan issue. Senator Wielechowski continued that in 2022 it was estimated that the state voter registration list equaled 106 percent of the adult population. The bill clarified residency definitions for voting. It improved Alaska's voter roll clean up statutes and implemented a ballot tracking system. It included numerous provisions to improve the security and integrity of Alaska's elections. It included a provision requiring synthetic media to include a disclaimer on election communications. It included several provisions to allow election results to be reported faster and provide more transparency during the counting process. Senator Wielechowski stressed that the bill required preliminary ranked choice voting tabulations to be released whenever updated results were released. It allowed election to be certified five days earlier by creating a uniform deadline for ballots to be received 10 days after the election. He thought the bill was a comprehensive package that would absolutely improve the state's election system. Co-Chair Stedman wondered about automatic registration via the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) application. Senator Wielechowski replied that the bill did not change or impact the automatic voter registration. He thought the provision was added by voters via the initiative process, which he thought had passed by the highest number of voters in history. 9:22:57 AM DAVID DUNSMORE, STAFF, SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI, relayed that the only provision in the bill related to PFD registration was added language to clarify that registering to vote via the PFD application was not considered to be contacting the division for purposes of the voter roll clean-up statutes. Co-Chair Stedman had concerns related to automatic voter registration. He thought the matter needed to be discussed further. Senator Kiehl asked about proposed changes to clean-up of voter rolls. Mr. Dunsmore explained that there were several provisions in the bill related to the voter roll cleanup. He mentioned a provision clarifying the definition of residency, which Senate Majority counsel had worked on. There were provisions that expedited notice for those that had not voted. Several provisions were added related to individuals establishing residency in another state. Additional provisions added in the Senate State Affairs Committee related to hiring consultants to conduct regular reviews of voter rolls to identify areas of needed improvement. 9:26:15 AM SONJA KAWASAKI, LEGAL COUNSEL, SENATE MAJORITY, explained that current law allowed that once a person established residency, an individual did not lose the right to vote if there was an intent to return. The change proposed in the bill would require a person that had an absence from the state have a reasonable and articulable plan to return to the state. The sponsor believed the provision would set a higher bar for residency. There were voter cleanup provisions that would address people that appeared to be no longer residents of Alaska. The individuals would be sent a notice that assurance was necessary to be considered a resident. Senator Kaufman wanted to be sure about the concept of residency in the state. He wondered if the bill could be misconstrued to require returning to the exact same address. Ms. Kawasaki replied that current law required establishment of residence in the House district in which you were registered. Under the bill, if an individual left the state and had an articulable and reasonable plan to return at the residence at which they were registered, that individual would still meet the qualifications for voting in the House district. She thought that current law dictated that if one moved within a Senate district, the vote would count for statewide elections. The intent of the bill was to allow a person to still vote if they moved within the same House district. Senator Kaufman asked if Ms. Kawasaki meant that a person had to have an intent to return to the same House district. Ms. Kawasaki answered, "in order to vote for elections in that House district." Senator Kaufman requested to follow up later. 9:30:54 AM Senator Cronk asked about removal of the witness signature and asked about issues with the signature. Senator Wielechowski reiterated that in the 2022 special election, roughly 10 percent of rural voters in the state had votes thrown out for failing to provide a witness signature. He discussed challenges in obtaining a witness signature and noted that it disproportionately affected people in rural areas and military districts. He understood the rationale for a witness signature but pointed out that it was not verified. He described a hypothetical situation he discussed with the Division of Elections. He relayed that the bill was a remedy for those that were disenfranchised. Senator Cronk shared that he had never had a constituent call to describe the problem. Mr. Dunsmore elaborated that the witness signature requirement for absentee voting in the state law was a unique provision. For other purposes, the division allowed self-certification. He mentioned the ballot initiative booklet. The witness signature did not provide election integrity as there was no requirement that the person signing verify the identity of the voter. He mentioned service members overseas or Peace Corps volunteers. He mentioned 2,700 ballots that were thrown out during the special election. Senator Kaufman asked how signatures were handled with paper registration scanned and emailed. Mr. Dunsmore asked if Senator Kaufman was referring to voter registration. Senator Kaufman answered affirmatively. Mr. Dunsmore replied that he thought the division accepted voter registration forms submitted electronically. 9:36:10 AM CAROL BEECHER, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF ELECTIONS, OFFICE OF THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, replied that for voter registration forms, the signature was verified against motor vehicle records or other identifiers if the signature was not available. Senator Kaufman asked if there was any provision for an electronic signature. Ms. Beecher replied in the negative but thought there was an electronic signature provision in the bill. She noted that the verifier signature was an image of the Division of Motor Vehicles signature. Co-Chair Stedman discussed automatic registration and thought it had created problems for the Division of Elections. Ms. Beecher asked for more detail. Co-Chair Stedman relayed that he was talking about automatic voter registration through the PFD application. Ms. Beecher described the automatic registration process through the PFD application, which provided the division with a list of individuals that had indicated they were United States citizens on the application. The division did not receive any forms from individuals that had noted they were not a US citizen. Anyone on the list that was a new registrant or had changed their address received a letter asking if they wanted to be registered to vote. If the letter was not answered, the individuals were automatically registered. Co-Chair Stedman thought individuals should have the gumption to actively go register to vote and take an interest in democracy, as opposed to automatic registration. He found the process questionable. Senator Kaufman mentioned that he had talked with a surprising number of people during political campaigns that relayed having not lived in the state for years but had names on the voter lists. He asked if the bill would address the problem. 9:40:30 AM Ms. Beecher replied that the voter rolls would always appear to be bloated if looking at the perspective of how many eligible voters there were in Alaska compared to how many eligible voters there were. The reason was due to the intent to return language in statute. She listed examples of individuals that could reside overseas (in the military) or could be residing in another state and have the intent to return to the state and still be eligible to vote in the state. She discussed the amount of time it took to be completely removed from voter rolls, which was in federal law and lasted two general elections. If a person applied for the PFD, it would be sufficient activity to continue on the voter rolls. Co-Chair Hoffman thought that individuals attending college out of state would be included. Senator Kaufman thought that there was a financial incentive for staying on the voter rolls. Co-Chair Stedman considered all 50 states and wondered about a comparison between Alaska's voter lists. Ms. Beecher replied that she had spoken to a secretary of state from another state that experienced challenges with voter rolls due to summer employees. Senator Kaufman wondered about drop boxes and asked about what might be in the bill. Ms. Beecher responded that under the bill every region (there were five regions) would be required to have a drop box. Senator Kaufman asked Ms. Beecher to repeat her answer. Ms. Beecher relayed that the bill required drop boxes in each of the five regional locations. Senator Kaufman asked if the bill only required a drop box in each of the five regions. Ms. Beecher agreed. 9:44:40 AM Senator Kiehl was curious about notices sent to inactive voters, and applying for the PFD being considered as sufficient voter action to remain on the list. He asked if Section 9 of the bill would address the issue. Mr. Dunsmore replied in the affirmative. Senator Kaufman asked about the cost of maintaining drop boxes. Ms. Beecher replied that the fiscal note reflected an anticipated $23,000 for the five drop boxes. There were also shipping costs and storage costs to store the drop boxes. The total was estimated to be $30,000 for the additional purchase, with some costs ongoing. 9:46:56 AM TOM STEWART, DIRECTOR OF POLICY, SECURE DEMOCRACY USA, BALTIMORE (via teleconference), spoke in support of the bill. He supported the CS from the Senate State Affairs Committee. He stressed that strengthening election security and improving voter freedoms were not mutually exclusive and were necessary to build public trust. His organization had worked with the legislature in a bipartisan manner since 2022 to review and pose improvements to election administration and voting integrity. He thought the bill would ultimately improve Alaska's trust and confidence in future elections. He highlighted provisions such as list maintenance practices to help keep voter rolls accurate, improved voter registration practices, strengthened ballot tracking, speeding up reporting of results, and creating a uniform statewide ballot cure process. Mr. Stewart referenced further bill provisions that would strengthen the election process. He discussed elimination of the witness signature requirement, which he considered was unfair in its application and disenfranchised rural and senior voters disproportionately. He thought there were better ways to verify voters. 9:51:00 AM Co-Chair Hoffman OPENED public testimony. 9:51:19 AM KENDRA KLOSTER, DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENT RELATIONS, ALASKA FEDERATION OF NATIVES, ANCHORAGE (via teleconference), testified in support of the legislation. She noted that the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) was the largest native organization in the state. She discussed AFN's support of accessible elections and expressed concerns about voter disenfranchisement. She noted that the state had no ballot curing process. She mentioned proposed voter reforms supported by AFN, which would provide easier access. She cautioned for provisions that could limit access, such as repealing automatic voter registration. Additionally, she expressed concern about the idea of not counting votes received after election day. She mentioned mail difficulties, rural areas, and military members. Co-Chair Stedman wondered if AFN saw a high correlation between Western Alaska and small towns in Southeast dealing with uncounted ballots due to lack of witness signature. He wanted to get a sense of the magnitude of the issue. Ms. Kloster replied that she could provide a breakdown that she would send to the committee. In 2024's general election there was about an 8 percent rejected rate for mission signatures. Districts 38, 39, and 40 had an even higher rejected rate of about 14 percent. 9:55:31 AM RANDY RUEDRICH, SELF, ANCHORAGE (via teleconference), spoke against the bill. He had worked on state elections for many years. He recounted that in 2001 there had been more people registered in the state of Alaska than there were of voting age. He thought the problem had been present for some time. He did not think automated voter registration created the problem. He discussed residency and pondered a "snowbird law" and a "dropout law." He thought it was nonsensical to expect voters that moved to return to the same residence. Mr. Ruedrich discussed the witness signature requirement. He did not support elimination of the witness signature requirement. He considered the number of witness signature challenges in the 2024 election, which he did not think were numerous. He thought there was a complete mischaracterization of the problem with the required witness signature. He did not think the state needed a ballot cure process. He supported an election day deadline for ballots. 10:01:56 AM MIKE GARVEY, POLICY DIRECTOR, AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION ALASKA, ANCHORAGE (via teleconference), spoke in support of the legislation. He thought the bill would help uphold the voting rights of Alaskans and improve the integrity of elections. He supported repealing the witness signature requirement and establishing a ballot curing system. He discussed the ballot curing provision. He cited data from the Division of Elections that indicated that in the 2024 general election, 242 ballots were rejected in districts of the committee members. He noted that the Alaska Superior Court recently ruled that the responsibility to implement a ballot curing system fell to the legislature. He thought counting every eligible vote was essential. 10:04:53 AM BARBARA WARNER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL VOTE AT HOME INSTITUTE, PORTLAND (via teleconference), testified in support of the bill. She thought the bill would expand access to mail ballots and the systems that supported voters' confidence in them. She discussed best practices proposed in the bill including eliminating the witness signature requirement, implementing ballot tracking and curing, providing drop boxes and prepaid postage for returning ballots, and allowing for pre-processing of ballots for election day. She supported adding a provision to allow for a single sign-up, which would allow for voters to receive all mail-in ballots going forward. She thought the single sign up resulted in significant cost savings. She discussed the popularity of mail-in ballots. She referenced a resolution by the Anchorage Assembly that allowed for mail-in ballots. Co-Chair Hoffman CLOSED public testimony. 10:09:09 AM Senator Kiehl reviewed the fiscal notes. He listed a zero fiscal note from the Department of Administration, Alaska Public Offices Commission, OMB Component 70. Senator Kiehl addressed FN 3 from the Office of the Governor, Division of Elections, OMB Component 21. The note did not show a cost for FY 26, but showed an FY 27 cost of $338.8 thousand in UGF for one full-time position and five temporary positions. In the out years, the division levelized the even and odd years for an average of $290.1 thousand. The one full-time position was constant, and the temporary positions were for every other year. Senator Wielechowski thanked the committee. 10:10:37 AM AT EASE 10:11:08 AM RECONVENED SB 64 was HEARD and HELD in committee for further consideration. 10:11:20 AM AT EASE 10:13:13 AM RECONVENED