Making it easier for Alaskans to cast their ballots shouldn’t be about how they vote, which way they lean politically or how much they favor one party over another.
Admittedly, elections are partisan. Sadly, increasingly so. Candidates, their fat-funded political action committees and political parties have turned the nation’s elections into an endless stream of negative attack ads that prey on the public’s fear of anything that will get them to the polls.
It’s bad enough that partisanship has taken over election campaigns. But those same ugly politics have infected who gets access to the polls, and that is a partisan step too far for democracy.
Who voters may choose and which party they may favor should not influence the voter-access rules that lawmakers set. Elected officials should be unanimous about equal access for all.
Yet around the country, officials are limiting the use of drop boxes for voters who prefer to avoid election day lines at polling places, reducing the number of days allowed for early voting, and making it harder for people who want to register to vote. The restrictions are intended to sway election results by cutting down on voters who allegedly tend to vote for Democratic candidates.
The good news is that things have been better in Alaska. But our elected officials are not devoid of partisan motives and, unfortunately, legislating access for voting made the news in Alaska this month. The speaker of the state House said voters’ political leaning likely influenced legislation — which failed to pass — that would have made it easier for people to cast an absentee ballot.
The legislation would have eliminated the pointless requirement in state law that an absentee voter find someone, anyone to sign as a witness on the back of the ballot envelope. The witness doesn’t attest to having checked the voter’s ID or even knowing the person; it’s just a meaningless signature. It’s an unnecessary barrier, particularly in rural communities where it’s already hard enough to get a timely postmark on a mailed ballot to meet the deadline.
The failed legislation also would have allowed voters to correct a mistake in filing out the mailing envelope for their ballot.
”The changes in that bill definitely would have leaned the election toward Mary Peltola, to be quite honest, with no signatures on ballots in, you know, in rural areas,” Speaker Cathy Tilton said on the “Michael Dukes Show” earlier this month. Dukes is a conservative talk show host who sells online memberships in his Common Sense Corps and devotes three hours of his show every Friday “talking about our favorite thing … the gun culture.”
House Republicans, of which Tilton is the leader, blocked the bill’s passage on the final day of the legislative session in May.
The lack of a witness signature on the outside of the ballot envelope led to a heavy disqualification of ballots in rural parts of the state in the 2022 special primary election. In one rural district, nearly 11% of all ballots cast were rejected for missing a witness signature.
Rural voters, heavily Alaska Native, have overwhelmingly supported Peltola, who is running for reelection against Republican Nick Begich.
A voter’s preference should not be a consideration for Alaska legislators. If elections are to fulfill their mandate of letting the people decide, then the goal should be letting all legal voters make the decision. Deciding on legislation to influence the outcome is wrong and should be fixed next year.
Reader Comments(0)