SB 161-POLITICAL PARTY DEFINITION  1:08:50 PM CHAIR CLAMAN announced that the first order of business would be CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 161(JUD), "An Act relating to the definition of 'political party'; and providing for an effective date." [Before the committee was HCS CSSB 161(STA).] 1:09:11 PM DAVID DUNSMORE, Staff, Senator Bill Wielechowski, Alaska State Legislature, presented HSC CSSB 161(STA) on behalf of Senator Wielechowski, prime sponsor. He explained that the proposed legislation would simplify the process for political parties to gain recognition. He described the current threshold for official party recognition as "variable," as it is based on the voter turnout from the most recent general election. He explained that the proposed legislation would change the threshold to an even 5,000 voters, and after every centennial census the number of voters would be adjusted based on population changes and then rounded to the nearest 500. Because the current threshold is based on voter turnout, he said, the threshold can fluctuate wildly after a record voter turnout. This creates a paradoxical problem because midterm election turnout is lower; thus, political parties would have to meet a higher threshold to be on the ballot. He stated that since the passage of Ballot Measure 2 [in 2020] political parties would only have automatic rights in the election for the office of the U.S. presidency. He stated that having official party status guarantees the ability to purchase two pages in the official election pamphlet, nominate election workers, and have poll watchers. 1:11:58 PM VICE CHAIR SNYDER, referring to the sponsor statement [copy included in the committee packet], addressed the sentence, which read as follows [original punctuation provided]: "This threshold can vary wildly from election to election and after the 2020 election it increased by 27% because of record voter turnout." She requested clarification on the use of the word "it" in the statement. 1:12:29 PM MR. DUNSMORE responded that "it" refers to the threshold, which is the total number of registered voters a party must have to retain official status. He explained that the number increased because the voter turnout in 2020 had been 27 percent higher than in 2018. 1:12:58 PM MR. DUNSMORE, in response to a follow-up question, confirmed that the number of votes required to reach the 3 percent threshold increased by 27 percent in the 2020 election. He explained that prior to Ballot Measure 2 there had been 2 ways to achieve party status. A party could have registered voters which equaled 3 percent of the number of voters, or, in the previous election, the party's top ticket candidate would need to have received 3 percent of the vote. He said that Ballot Measure 2 changed the process, and now the only way to meet the threshold would be through voter registration. 1:13:54 PM CHAIR CLAMAN referenced the amendment adopted to the proposed legislation by the House State Affairs Standing Committee in its [04/21/2022] meeting, which deleted the language "represents a political program". He requested Mr. Dunsmore speak to the deletion of the language, and he questioned whether the deletion should be undone. 1:14:28 PM MR. DUNSMORE responded that after the proposed legislation moved out of the previous committee of referral, Legislative Legal Services sent a memorandum pointing out that the language change could be tied to the operation of the statute in regard to appointments to vacancies in the legislature. He clarified that the change was thought to be stylistic, and the intention of the amendment was not to change the statute in this way. He advised the committee that reverting back to the language passed out of the Senate may be wise. 1:16:07 PM` REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS suggested that maintaining the language in the legislation would maintain parallelism in the statutes. MR. DUNSMORE responded in the affirmative. 1:16:35 PM VICE CHAIR SNYDER expressed the understanding that, in terms of the proposed legislation, "political party" means an organized group of voters with at least 5,000 registered voters. She pointed out that a political party would not exist until 5,000 voters have been registered, and she questioned how voters would register in a political party which does not exist. MR. DUNSMORE responded that this is provided elsewhere in statute, and he would follow up after the meeting with this information. He said to achieve official status the party's bylaws would need to be submitted to the Division of Elections, and then the party would be added to the voter registration form. He explained that every month the division updates the voter list, and when the number hits the threshold, the party would be qualified for the election. 1:18:01 PM CHAIR CLAMAN opened public testimony on SB 161. After ascertaining that there was no one who wished to testify, he closed public testimony. 1:18:35 PM The committee took an at-ease from 1:18 p.m. to 1:20 p.m. [SB 161 was held over.]