HB 129-VOTER REGISTRATION  3:29:55 PM CHAIR VANCE announced that the first order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 129, "An Act relating to voter registration; and providing for an effective date." [Before the committee was CSHB 129(STA), as amended on 5/5/23.] 3:30:07 PM REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN moved to adopt Amendment 3 to CSHB 129(STA), labeled 33-LS0668\B.4, Klein, 5/4/23, which read: Page 1, line 1, following "Act": Insert "relating to the master register;" Page 1, following line 2: Insert a new bill section to read:  "* Section 1. AS 15.07.127 is amended to read: Sec. 15.07.127. Preparation of master register.  The director shall prepare both a statewide list and a list by precinct of the names and addresses of all persons whose names appear on the master register and their political party affiliation. The director shall  create a daily backup of the master register at 5:00  p.m. each day. Subject to the limitations of AS 15.07.195, any person may obtain a copy of the list, a daily backup of the list, or a part of the list, or an electronic format containing both residence and mailing addresses of voters, by applying to the director and paying to the state treasury a fee as determined by the director."  Page 1, line 3: Delete "Section 1" Insert "Sec. 2" Renumber the following bill sections accordingly. REPRESENTATIVE C. JOHNSON objected. 3:30:10 PM REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN explained that Amendment 3 would implement a daily backup of the master voter registration list making the daily backup available to any person upon request. REPRESENTATIVE C. JOHNSON asked the Division of Elections (DOE) whether a daily backup at 5:00 p.m. each day was a reasonable request. 3:31:56 PM CAROL BEECHER, Director, Division of Elections (DOE), Office of the Lieutenant Governor, explained that currently, DOE backed up its database each night at 12:00 a.m. Should Amendment 3 pass, the division would need to reconfigure the current system so as not to impede the 5:00 p.m. backup. She indicated that the proposal would be costly and time consuming. REPRESENTATIVE C. JOHNSON inquired about the division's staff load at 5:00 p.m. on any given day. MS. BEECHER said staff didn't work beyond 5:00 p.m. on a regular basis. She noted that the database backup process was automated. 3:33:56 PM REPRESENTATIVE CARPENTER asked whether the previous day's data was saved in its entirety in a separate file or whether there was only one file for the entire database. MS. BEECHER said the information was backed up every day, from which point old data was not saved. She emphasized the size of the database, indicating that it would expand at a rate of 2-6 gigabytes each day if daily lists were retained. REPRESENTATIVE CARPENTER asked whether a snapshot of the database from any specific day could be provided. MS. BEECHER remarked, "When it is backed up, then each time we go from the most current backup forward." She highlighted the distinction between the backup of the database and the voter registration list, which was compiled by DOE staff using information from the database. 3:36:53 PM REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN shared his understanding that there were two separate backups: one at midnight and one at 5:00 p.m. He asked Ms. Beecher to distinguish between the two. MS. BEECHER clarified that the database was currently backed up at around midnight each day, not at 5:00 p.m. REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN questioned the file size of the voter registration list. MS. BEECHER offered to follow up with the requested information. REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN asked whether a backup at midnight would conflict with the division's current processes. MS. BEECHER said a specific time would be problematic for the division to adhere to. 3:39:21 PM REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN asked whether the division would object to language requiring a daily backup [without a specific time]. MS. BEECHER clarified that the division already backed up its database every day. CHAIR de asked whether Amendment 3 would instigate fiscal note if it required the director to create a daily backup with no specified time. MS. BEECHER reiterated that that the division already ran a backup of the database every day. She highlighted the language on line 12 of the proposed amendment, which DOE interpreted as requiring a daily backup of the voter registration list. She explained that the voter registration list was created by request, as opposed to every day, adding that it took time to respond to each request. 3:40:57 PM REPRESENTATIVE GRAY asked whether it was a fair characterization to say that the first half of the proposed amendment was already in practice and the second half might be prohibitively difficult. MS. BEECHER explained that requiring the division to retain a daily backup of the voter registration list would require a large amount of data, as every daily backup would need to be stored somewhere in the database. REPRESENTATIVE GRAY suggested tracking the changes made to the list on each particular day, rather than saving every daily backup of the list. MS. BEECHER reiterated that it would be costly to make and retain a list every day and a lot of work to track the changes. She stressed that the list was a living document, meaning that each day, staff added and removed people from the voter registration list. REPRESENTATIVE GRAY pointed out that in the healthcare industry, any changes or additions made to an electronic medical record were timestamped. He suggested upgrading the technology to simple software that was not time-consuming or expensive. 3:44:26 PM REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN offered closing remarks on Amendment 3. He characterized the division's choice to "destroy and override" the list as an "obvious violation [the] public record retention laws." He opined that there was no justification for deleting the record. [The committee considered the objection to Amendment 3 to be maintained.] 3:45:51 PM A roll call vote was taken. Representatives Eastman voted in favor of Amendment 3. Representatives Carpenter, C. Johnson, Grey, Groh, Allard, and Vance voted against it. Therefore, Amendment 3 failed by a vote of 1-6. REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN moved to adopt Amendment 4 to CSHB 129(STA), labeled 33-LS0668\B.5, Klein, 5/4/23, which read: Page 1, line 1, following "registration;": Insert "relating to voter identification;" Page 1, following line 2: Insert new bill sections to read:  "* Section 1. AS 15.07.060 is amended by adding a new subsection to read: (g) In addition to the information required under (a) of this section, an applicant may elect to provide the diviion a unique security identifier selected by the applicant. Upon an applicant's request, the division shall, for all elections purposes, require and accept a unique identifier selected by the applicant instead of the identifiers provided under (a)(2) and (3) of this section.  * Sec. 2. AS 15.07.125 is amended by adding a new subsection to read: (b) The official registration list for an election and the list of persons eligible to vote in each precinct must include the unique security identifier for each person on the list who has provided a unique security identifier under AS 15.07.060(g)." Page 1, line 3: Delete "Section 1" Insert "Sec. 3" Renumber the following bill sections accordingly. Page 4, following line 15: Insert new bill sections to read:  "* Sec. 8. AS 15.20.030 is amended to read: Sec. 15.20.030. Preparation of ballots,  envelopes, and other material. The director shall provide ballots for use as absentee ballots in all districts. The director shall provide a secrecy sleeve in which the voter shall initially place the marked ballot, and shall provide an envelope with the prescribed voter's certificate on it, in which the secrecy sleeve with ballot enclosed shall be placed. The director shall prescribe the form of and prepare the voter's certificate, envelopes, and other material used in absentee voting. The voter's certificate shall include a declaration, for use when required, that the voter is a qualified voter in all respects, a blank for the voter's signature and a blank for a unique  security identifier selected under AS 15.07.060(g), a certification that the affiant properly executed the marking of the ballot and gave the voter's identity, blanks for the attesting official or witness, and a place for recording the date the envelope was sealed and witnessed. The envelope with the voter's certificate must include a notice that false statements made by the voter or by the attesting official or witness on the certificate are punishable by law.  * Sec. 9. AS 15.20.203(b) is amended to read: (b) An absentee ballot may not be counted if (1) the voter has failed to properly execute the certificate; (2) an official or the witnesses authorized by law to attest the voter's certificate fail to execute the certificate, except that an absentee ballot cast in person and accepted by an absentee voting official or election supervisor may be counted despite failure of the absentee voting official or election supervisor to properly sign and date the voter's certificate as attesting official as required under AS 15.20.061(c); (3) the ballot is not attested on or before the date of the election; (4) the ballot, if postmarked, is not postmarked on or before the date of the election; (5) after the day of election, the ballot was delivered by a means other than mail; [OR] (6) the voter voted (A) in person and is a (i) first-time voter who initially registered by mail or by facsimile or other electronic transmission approved by the director under AS 15.07.050, has not provided the identification required by AS 15.15.225(a), was not eligible for waiver of the identification requirement under AS 15.15.225(b), and has not provided the identifiers required in AS 15.07.060(a)(2) and (3) that can be verified through state agency records described in AS 15.07.055(e); or (ii) voter other than one described in (i) of this subparagraph, did not provide identification described in AS 15.15.225(a), was not personally known by the election official, and has not provided the identifiers required in AS 15.07.060(a)(2) and (3); or (B) by mail or electronic transmission, is a first-time voter who initially registered by mail or by facsimile or other electronic transmission approved by the director under AS 15.07.050 to vote, has not met the identification requirements set out in AS 15.07.060, and does not submit with the ballot a copy of a (i) driver's license, state identification card, current and valid photo identification, birth certificate, passport, or hunting or fishing license; or (ii) current utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, government check, or other government document; an item described in this sub-subparagraph must show the name and current address of the voter;  or  (7) the voter elected to use a unique  security identifier selected under AS 15.07.060(g) and  the voter failed to provide the unique security  identifier.  * Sec. 10. AS 15.20.207(b) is amended to read: (b) A questioned ballot may not be counted if the voter (1) has failed to properly execute the certificate; (2) is a first-time voter who initially registered by mail or by facsimile or other electronic transmission approved by the director under AS 15.07.050, has not provided the identification required by AS 15.15.225(a), was not eligible for waiver of the identification requirement under AS 15.15.225(b), and has not provided the identifiers required in AS 15.07.060(a)(2) and (3) that can be verified through state agency records described in AS 15.07.055(e); [OR] (3) is a voter other than one described in (2) of this subsection, did not provide identification described in AS 15.15.225(a), was not personally known by the election official, and has not provided the identifiers required in AS 15.07.060(a)(2) and (3); or  (4) elected to use a unique security  identifier selected under AS 15.07.060(g) and the  voter failed to provide the unique security  identifier." Renumber the following bill section accordingly. REPRESENTATIVE C. JOHNSON objected. 3:46:38 PM REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN explained that Amendment 4 would allow applicants to select a unique security identifier to verify their identity in place of their Social Security number, which he characterized as a poor way of verifying someone's information after a data breach. 3:48:06 PM REPRESENTATIVE GROH asked for DOE's perspective on the proposed amendment. MS. BEECHER sought clarity on paragraph (7) of Amendment 4 and asked what the security identifier would look like, whether it be numbers or letters or a combination of both. REPRESENTATIVE GROH asked whether the proposed amendment would require a fiscal note. MS. BEECHER answered yes, there would be costs associated with assigning a new unique security identifier. Further, the division would need to figure out a way to apply the identifier to various documents and the voter registration list. CHAIR VANCE said she was supportive of added security; however, her intention was to keep the bill focused on the voter rolls with no fiscal note in light of [the state's] current finances. 3:51:01 PM REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN opined that the state's actions caused voter information to be compromised; consequently, he believed the state had a responsibility to safeguard that information. In reference to paragraph (7), he suggested that any person who forgot the unique identifier could verify his/her identity at a DOE office with a driver's license, state identification, or voter card and create a new security identifier of his/her own choosing. 3:52:14 PM A roll call vote was taken. Representative Eastman voted in favor of Amendment 4. Representatives Allard, Carpenter, C. Johnson, Gray, Groh, and Vance voted against it. Therefore, Amendment 4 failed by a vote of 1-6. 3:52:41 PM REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN moved to adopt Amendment 5 to CSHB 129(STA), labeled 33-LS0668\B.3, Klein, 5/4/23, which read: Page 1, line 1, following "registration;": Insert "relating to voting by mail;" Page 4, following line 15: Insert new bill sections to read:  "* Sec. 6. AS 15.20.081(c) is amended to read: (c) Except as provided in (m) of this section,  after [AFTER] receipt of an application, the director shall send the absentee ballot and other absentee voting material to the applicant by the most expeditious mail service. However, if the application requests that an absentee ballot for a state election be sent by electronic transmission, the director shall send the absentee ballot and other absentee voting material to the applicant by electronic transmission. Except as provided in (k) of this section, the absentee ballot and other absentee voting material shall be sent as soon as they are ready for distribution. If the absentee ballot and other absentee voting material are mailed to the applicant, the return envelope sent with the ballot and other materials shall be addressed to the election supervisor in the district in which the voter is a resident.  * Sec. 7. AS 15.20.081 is amended by adding a new subsection to read: (m) If mail sent by the division to a voter at an address is returned as undeliverable, the division may not send the voter an absentee ballot at that address unless the voter appears in person before a registration official to verify the address, presents a current driver's license, state identification card, or other current and valid photo identification, and requests that the division send an absentee ballot to the address.  * Sec. 8. AS 15.20.800(b) is amended to read: (b) If the director conducts an election under (a) of this section by mail, the director shall send a ballot for each election described in (a) of this section to each person whose name appears on the official registration list prepared under AS 15.07.125 for that election. The director shall send ballots by first class, nonforwardable mail. The ballot shall be sent to the address stated on the official registration list unless (1) the voter has notified the director or an election supervisor of a different address to which the ballot should be sent; or (2) the address on the official registration list has been identified as being an undeliverable address and the voter has not verified  the address as provided in AS 15.20.081(m)." Renumber the following bill section accordingly. REPRESENTATIVE CARPENTER objected for the purpose of discussion. 3:52:50 PM REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN stated that Amendment 5 required the division to verify a voter's identity prior to mailing a ballot to an address from which mail had been returned. 3:53:55 PM REPRESENTATIVE ALLARD considered a scenario in which voter mail was returned as undeliverable. Under current practices, she asked whether the division would continue to send an absentee ballot to that same address. MS. BEECHER deferred to Ms. Thompson. 3:54:34 PM MICHAELA THOMPSON, Acting Director, Division of Elections (DOE), Office of the Lieutenant Governor, explained that a preferred mailing address must be indicated on the absentee ballot applications. If the ballot was returned as undeliverable, the ballot would not be re-sent until the voter was contacted by the division and the mailing address was confirmed or updated. REPRESENTATIVE ALLARD said she was under the impression that ballots could not be forwarded. MS. THOMPSON explained that if the division mailed a ballot to a person who had set up a forwarding service on his/her address, the United States Postal Service (USPS) would return that ballot to the division. The division would then contact the voter to confirm or update his/her mailing address and resend the ballot. REPRESENTATIVE ALLARD asked whether Section 7 of Amendment 5 outlined existing practices. MS. THOMPSON shared her belief that the amendment required voters to appear in person before a registration official to verify the address, which was not existing practice. REPRESENTATIVE ALLARD opined that voting by absentee ballot was the safest way to vote aside from in person. 3:57:12 PM REPRESENTATIVE GRAY expressed concern about requiring voters in rural Alaska to appear in person before a registration official. He asked whether there were election officials in every community in Alaska. MS. THOMPSON replied not in every community. CHAIR VANCE expressed her opposition to Amendment 5 because it would expand the scope of the bill. 3:58:33 PM REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN shared a personal anecdote. He emphasized that Amendment 5 was asking DOE not to send ballots to undeliverable addresses, similar to a print shop. He argued that if this was in fact existing practice for the division, DOE should be encouraged to continue doing so. He said there should be no allowances for continuing to mail ballots to [undeliverable] addresses. [The committee considered the objection to Amendment 5 to be maintained.] 4:00:08 PM A roll call vote was taken. Representatives Allard and Eastman voted in favor of Amendment 5. Representatives Groh, Carpenter, C. Johnson, Gray, and Vance voted against it. Therefore, Amendment 5 failed by a vote of 2-5. 4:00:42 PM REPRESENTATIVE CARPENTER moved to adopt Amendment 6 to CSHB 129(STA), labeled 33-LS0668\B.9, Klein, 5/6/23, which read: Page 3, line 18, through page 4, line 1: Delete all material and insert: "(g) The division shall adopt regulations providing for regular review and updates of the master register. The regulations must provide for review of the register for data breaches, the number of registered voters compared to persons eligible to vote in the state, and the names of deceased voters, persons convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude, persons not qualified to vote under AS 15.05, and persons registered to vote in another state. The regulations must specify records and databases for use in reviewing the master register; the records and databases must include databases sourced from governmental agencies outside the division, including the United States Postal Service national change of address database, the database of permanent fund dividend recipients, Alaska Court System databases, state motor vehicle records, records of the state programs of corrections, property and sales tax records, records of the federal social security system, municipal assessor databases, the United States Social Security Administration death index, an alien database maintained by the United States Department of Homeland Security, and jury duty records from other jurisdictions. The director shall compare the master register to state welfare and public assistance agency databases to identify information relevant to registration to vote in state elections, including address changes, deaths, and citizenship status, and shall review the number of voters registered at each registration address to identify anomalous registration totals." Page 4, following line 15: Insert a new bill section to read:  "* Sec. 6. AS 15.07.195 is amended by adding a new subsection to read: (e) Unless disclosure of information related to a data breach of information made confidential by this section would compromise a criminal investigation, the director shall, not less than 30 days after discovering the breach, publish notice of the nature and severity of the breach on the division's Internet website and report the details of the breach to the president of the senate and the speaker of the house of representatives." Renumber the following bill section accordingly. REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN objected for the purpose of discussion. 4:00:54 PM JAKE ALMEIDA, Staff, Representative Sarah Vance, Alaska State Legislature, on behalf of the House Judiciary Standing Committee, sponsor by request, chaired by Representative Vance, explained that Amendment 6 revised subsection (g) on page 3, line 18 through page 4, line 1 of the bill. He read the new language, indicating that the proposed amendment dealt with the information used by the division to verify the master register. 4:02:51 PM REPRESENTATIVE GRAY directed attention to page 1, lines 17-19 of Amendment 6, and asked whether the division currently compared the master register to state welfare and public assistance agency databases. MS. BEECHER answered no. REPRESENTATIVE GRAY pointed out that state welfare and public assistance agencies were generally used by "poor people;" consequently, he shared his belief that by referencing those databases, the language singled out [low-income] individuals. CHAIR VANCE clarified that the intent was to utilize various databases within the state to verify updated information. 4:04:24 PM REPRESENTATIVE GROH asked whether the language would impose an additional fiscal note. MS. BEECHER answered yes, as it would require interface between the current system and the state welfare and public assistance agency databases. REPRESENTATIVE GRAY asked why fishing and hunting license databases weren't included. CHAIR VANCE defined [state welfare and public assistance agency databases] as "robust" because one-third of Alaskans were on some type of assistance. She suggested that the inclusion of those lists would help the division stay up to date, as [public assistance] forms were renewed every six months. 4:06:34 PM The committee took a brief at-ease. 4:07:47 PM REPRESENTATIVE CARPENTER moved to adopt Conceptual Amendment 1 to Amendment 6 to delete the word "shall" on line 17 and replace it with "may." REPRESENTATIVE ALLARD objected. She opined that "shall" was favorable to "may" and questioned the purpose of Amendment 6 without the more prescriptive language. REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN asserted that the division had trouble differentiating between "may" and "shall" in the past. He shared an example of the division failing to prioritize a special election after an elected official passed away [in 2022]. He expressed his hope that the division, under new leadership, would "come to grips with the idea that these are reasonable things that they should already be doing, and they should not be coming to us after we need a special election and saying ? 'we need more time, we need more money.'" 4:10:43 PM REPRESENTATIVE ALLARD pointed out that at the time, DOE was in unchartered waters with rank choice voting (RCV) and a jungle primary. She asked Ms. Beecher to elaborate on the fiscal impact of Amendment 6 and asked whether it would require new people or more efficiency. MS. BEECHER said the additional fiscal note would require programming to interface with the public assistance databases, as well as ongoing maintenance. She compared the potential costs to that of the permanent fund dividend (PFD) automatic voter registration (AVR), which cost $250,000 to implement, in addition to ongoing costs. REPRESENTATIVE ALLARD expressed her shock that [using various governmental databases] wasn't current practice for DOE. CHAIR VANCE highlighted the $7 million in the capital budget for voter maintenance and asked whether that money could be utilized for these types of updates. MS. BEECHER clarified that the $7 million was earmarked for a new voter registration system. If the capital funding passed, she said the division could consider using new technology to interface [with other databases] and perform batch processes in a more efficient manner when putting together the bid for the contract. CHAIR VANCE sought to confirm that costs of interfacing with state welfare and public assistance agency databases could be covered by capital funding, rather than creating a new fiscal note for the bill. MS. BEECHER offered to follow up with more specific details. She suspected that fulfilling these requests would need to be a separate project from the new voter registration system, which would take two years to implement, if the legislature wanted them completed sooner. 4:15:33 PM REPRESENTATIVE ALLARD asked why [the new voter registration system] would take two years to implement. MS. BEECHER highlighted constraints of the request for proposal (RFP) and procurement processes. Once procurement was complete, the technical staff was responsible for building the actual system, which she defined as a long process that could not be undertaken during an election year. REPRESENTATIVE ALLARD asked why the process couldn't be started in 2025 after the [presidential] election. MS. BEECHER said it was possible; however, the division's estimates were conservative so as to avoid overpromising and underdelivering. 4:18:32 PM REPRESENTATIVE GRAY questioned the intent of replacing "shall" with "may." REPRESENTATIVE CARPENTER said the effect of using "may" would allow the division to follow the provision at their discretion. [The committee considered the objection to the conceptual amendment to be maintained.] 4:19:31 PM A roll call vote was taken. Representatives Gray, Groh, Carpenter, C. Johnson, Eastman, and Vance voted in favor of Conceptual Amendment 1 to Amendment 6. Representative Allard voted against it. Therefore, Conceptual Amendment 1 to Amendment 6 passed by a vote of 6-1. 4:20:12 PM REPRESENTATIVE GRAY noted that his prior opposition to Amendment 6 was alleviated by the conceptual amendment. [The committee considered the objection to be maintained.] 4:21:20 PM A roll call vote was taken. Representatives Eastman, Gray, Groh, Allard, Carpenter, C. Johnson, and Vance voted in favor of Amendment 6, as amended. No representatives voted against it. Therefore, Amendment 6, as amended, passed by a vote of 6-0. CHAIR VANCE announced that CSHB 129(STA), as amended, would be held over. 4:22:19 PM The committee took an at-ease from 4:22 p.m. to 4:29 p.m.