SENATE STATE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE February 17, 1994 MEMBERS PRESENT Senator Mike Miller, Vice Chair Senator Robin Taylor Senator Jim Duncan Senator Johnny Ellis MEMBERS ABSENT Senator Loren Leman, Chair COMMITTEE CALENDAR SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 36 Proposing amendments to the Constitution of the State of Alaska requiring that candidates for governor and candidates for lieutenant governor receive more than 50 percent of the votes cast to be elected and changing the term of office of the governor and the lieutenant governor. PREVIOUS SENATE COMMITTEE ACTION SJR 36 - No previous senate committee action. WITNESS REGISTER Senator Tim Kelly State Capitol, Juneau, AK 99801-1182¶465-3822 POSITION STATEMENT: prime sponsor of SJR 36 Greg Wakefield 12940 Foster Road, Anchorage, AK 99516¶345-3002 POSITION STATEMENT: opposed to SJR 36 Rosemary Hagevig, State President League of Women Voters P.O. Box 22048, Juneau, AK 99802¶463-2501 POSITION STATEMENT: in favor of SJR 36 Representative Fran Ulmer State Capitol, Juneau, AK 99801-1182¶465-4947 POSITION STATEMENT: in favor of SJR 36 ACTION NARRATIVE (Call to order was not on the tape.) TAPE 94-10, SIDE A Number 035 SENATOR KELLY states the two-party system is over, and it is important that the governor be elected by a majority vote. Senator Kelly chose 50% as the figure a candidate must get to win the governor's seat, but 40% is also a possible figure. However, it is important that a governor be representative of as many people as possible, and should be over 25-30%. Number 066 VICE-CHAIR MILLER thanks Senator Kelly for his testimony and calls the next witness. Number 069 GREG WAKEFIELD, testifying from Anchorage, disagrees that the two- party system is over, although there are many splinter parties. Mr. Wakefield believes this bill would be the death bell for third party movements, and would strengthen the two-party system at the expense of diversity in Alaska. Mr. Wakefield asks that the committee consider something less than a majority vote, say 40%. He is not sure the expense of SJR 36 would justify the end result. The constitution should only be tampered with as a last result. Number 147 VICE-CHAIR MILLER thanks Mr. Wakefield for his testimony and calls the next witness. Number 155 ROSEMARY HAGEVIG, State President, League of Women Voters, states the league has discussed the concept of SJR 36 in the past, but has not studied it or developed a position on it. At this point, she cannot provide definitive support for SJR 36, however, as a general rule, any effort that is made to make the election process more representative of a majority of the electorate is usually something the League of Women Voters would support. The only section the league is concerned with at this point, is the section that would eliminate access to the ballot for absentee voters in a run-off election. Number 176 VICE-CHAIR MILLER thanks Ms. Hagevig for her testimony and calls the next witness. Number 179 REPRESENTATIVE ULMER states she supports a candidate getting a minimum of 40% of the votes cast to win an election. She favors this because asking for a minimum of 50% increases the chances of having frequent run-off elections, which would be expensive. Secondly, she is concerned with the time period between a regular election and a run-off election. By compressing that window, it could put the governor at a disadvantage. Perhaps the legislative session following a run-off election should be delayed. Number 212 SENATOR KELLY says he wants to clarify for Ms. Hagevig of The League of Women Voters, that absentee ballots would be counted, but write-in candidates on ballots would not be counted in a run-off election. Number 224 VICE-CHAIR MILLER thanks Senator Kelly for his comment. Number 227 SENATOR DUNCAN asks Senator Kelly if there is a prohibition in elections in the Municipality of Anchorage against write-in candidates in run-off elections. (The tape is not clear, not able to understand Senator Kelly's response.) SENATOR DUNCAN is curious about why Governor Hammond is interested in seeing greater than 50% required to win a run-off election. Number 247 SENATOR ELLIS asks if there is a fiscal note or cost estimate for SJR 36. Number 250 VICE-CHAIR MILLER responds that there is a fiscal note from the Division of Elections, which is approximately 765,000 dollars. This is their estimate for a run-off election. Number 268 SENATOR ELLIS asks the vice-chair if the committee can have a day or two to think about the bill before passing it out of committee. Senator Ellis states that the bill that was introduced in the house in the last legislature by Representative Kubina was not intended to be a jab at Governor Hickel. Hopefully, enough time has gone by so that SJR 36 is not seen in the same way. He wants the committee to think about changing the 50% requirement to 40%. Senator Ellis states he would like to see the bill pass, and thinks 40% would help it out. Number 314 VICE-CHAIR MILLER says he recalls there was strong opposition to Representative Kubina's bill in the last legislature from the Green Party. The vice-chair will request Chairman Leman to bring the bill back up for consideration in Wednesday's committee meeting. Hearing no other comments, Vice-Chair Miller adjourns the State Affairs Committee meeting.