Happy Alaska Day… Its Time to Early Vote

Happy Alaska Day… It’s Time to Vote!

Are you tired of the avalanche of political mailers in your mailbox paid for by out-of-state Political Action Committees like I am? Well, the start of early voting means the end is near!

Early voting starts on October 19th – which coincidentally is a day off for state employees in observance of Alaska Day. This is a great opportunity for state employees, and anyone else who has Alaska Day off, to exercise their right to vote for the November 3 General Election.

Fairbanksans can vote early at the Division of Elections Office in the State Office Building Downtown at 675 7th Ave. Early voting will take place during regular business hours Monday through Friday (8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.), Saturdays (10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) and Sundays (12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.) until election day!

In this election, voters will have the chance to elect our next member of the United States Senate, our next member of the United States House of Representatives, our next Governor, and members of the State House and State Senate. Additionally, there will be two ballot measures that the voters will get to approve or reject. Here is more information about each ballot measure:

• Ballot Measure 2: This bill would repeal our open primary system, rank-choice voting and enhanced campaign finance reporting requirements for political action committees, which were originally established through Ballot Measure 2 in 2020. As the Chairman of the State Affairs Committee, I have blocked similar bills that have been introduced in the Legislature – most recently SB 2 in the 33rd Legislature. While I think there are improvements that can be made to our open primary and rank choice voting system, a wholesale repeal would be counterproductive.

Additionally, this ballot measure would cost over $2.5 million to implement. For comparison, the omnibus elections bill that was vetoed by the Governor last session – SB 64 – would have only cost about $400,000 to implement. That bill was a much broader elections bill that actually helped reduce barriers to voting in Alaska while preserving election security. A cost driver of Ballot Measure 2 is the requirement that the state have separate ballots for closed primaries that are run by the political parties.

• Ballot Measure 3: This bill would specify that only citizens are allowed to vote in Alaskan elections. This is a duplicative measure since non-citizens are already prohibited from voting in any elections in the United States. This ballot measure is being supported by former Republican state legislators, including former Senator John Coghill, former Speaker of the House Mike Chenault, and former Senator Josh Revak.

During the regular session, the House and Senate State Affairs Committees hosted a joint hearing to review each ballot measure. You can watch the hearing chaired by me and Rep. Ashley Carrick (D – West Fairbanks) here. This hearing was convened to fulfill a legal requirement in which legislative committees have at least one hearing to review each ballot measure. This hearing included testimony from groups in support and in opposition to each ballot measure that are registered with the Alaska Public Offices Commission.