The state has removed 3,048 Alaskans from the state’s active voter list, claiming they may be noncitizens.
The removals leave those residents able to vote only if they provide additional identity information. Removal puts them on track to be purged from the state’s voter roll altogether.
Only U.S. citizens may vote in Alaska, according to state and federal law, but many of the removals appear to have affected citizens who were erroneously flagged by the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles.
Carol Beecher, director of the Alaska Division of Elections, told state legislators on July 22 that the removals were the result of “old data” given to the division from the DMV, and she isn’t sure why so many Alaskans were flagged as possible noncitizens.
Under Alaska’s “motor voter” program, people are asked if they want to register to vote when they apply for a driver’s license. The registration process requires the applicant to state whether or not they are a citizen.
Elections officials check the state’s voter roll against DMV records several times per year, searching for people who may be incorrectly registered to vote. That usually results in “more like 200 names” being flagged for extra attention, Beecher said.
“We believe that when we did the match, that a lot of old data was picked up somehow. So we’re still ferreting through that,” she said.
Under its normal procedure, the elections division sends letters to people who were flagged by the DMV, asking those people if they are citizens.
Thousands of those letters were mailed to affected state residents starting last month, according to Beecher’s testimony and copies provided to the Beacon by affected citizens.
Beecher told lawmakers that anyone deemed a noncitizen by the state needs to contact the Division of Elections by phone, email or mail and state that they are a citizen.
“We don’t require paperwork. We’re not requiring documentation. Nothing like that,” she said.
After Beecher’s statements, the Beacon asked the head of the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles, Kathy Wallace, and the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Administration, Paula Vrana, for an interview. The Department of Administration is the DMV’s parent agency.
In response, the division sent a memo saying that in March the elections division “provided DMV with a list of approximately 15,200 DMV license and identification applicants and requested that DMV provide citizenship information for these records. This was a non-routine request.”
What it gave to the Division of Elections was “only those records where DMV’s latest confirmed status for an individual was other than ‘Citizen.’”
Based on interviews with affected people, the records flagged by the DMV appear to include Alaskans who obtained driver’s licenses as noncitizens, then became citizens and registered to vote, but have not received a new driver’s license since becoming a citizen.
Chris Waigl of Fairbanks got her Alaska driver’s license in 2019 and became an American citizen in 2025. She became alarmed after checking her registration status last weekend, only to learn that she was listed as “inactive – non citizen.”
“They were able to correct it there and then after I sent in copies of my naturalization certificate with a date before my voter registration date,” she said by email.
But Waigl went further, contacting four other people who became naturalized citizens at the same time she did. Of those, only one said they were still listed as an active voter.
One of the others, reached by phone, said he was listed as inactive despite registering as a voter at the local DMV office and presenting his citizenship paperwork at that time.
Several people affected by the removal said they have attempted to contact the Division of Elections but have been unable to reach staff by phone, and that voicemail boxes have been full.
“It’s just ridiculous,” Waigl said.
She said the state’s policy of simply sending a letter is inadequate, particularly because there may be legal consequences if the state or federal government believes someone has voted as a noncitizen.
The removals come seven months after Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who oversees the Division of Elections, directed the state to answer a request from the U.S. Department of Justice and turn over extended copies of the state’s voter rolls.
The Justice Department has made similar requests across the country and intends to share the data with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to check for noncitizens who may have voted illegally.
The tool used by DHS is error-prone and has erroneously flagged some citizens, according to an investigation by ProPublica.
States led by Democratic officials have accused the federal government of deliberately attempting to raise fear, uncertainty and doubt about state elections systems in order to lay the groundwork for challenges to the 2026 midterm elections.
The Alaska Beacon is an independent, donor-funded news organization. Alaskabeacon.com.
