Ranked-choice voting opponents hit with second fine for campaign finance violations

State political campaign regulators have issued a second heavy penalty against the organizers of a failed campaign that sought to repeal Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system.

On Jan. 27, the Alaska Public Offices Commission fined Alaskans for Honest Elections, Alaskans for Honest Government, the Ranked Choice Education Association and Anchorage resident Arthur Matthias a combined total of almost $157,000.

The commission imposed the maximum allowable fines on the parties, stating that they have “proven themselves shockingly poor at complying with their (campaign finance) reporting obligations.”

The backers of the initiative were fined more than $94,000 last January after the commission found that they had illegally funneled their spending through a tax-exempt church in Washington state and failed to report their donations and spending as required under state law.

The $94,000 fine has been appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court, but in last week’s order the Alaska Public Offices Commission ruled that the parties still had not filed financial disclosure forms mandated under the previous citation.

“We agree that the respondents are violating the prior order and the law, conclude that their appeal of some issues in prior order does not excuse their lack of compliance, and impose civil penalties for the ongoing and new violations,” the commission’s latest order states.

Mathias and the campaign groups are represented by former Alaska Attorney General Kevin Clarkson, who has said the groups don’t owe the $94,000 in fines because the groups have since been dissolved or soon will be, leaving no one to pay the amount owed.

The three groups and Matthias were instrumental in the signature gathering before last year’s Ballot Measure 2, which sought to repeal Alaska’s system of open primary elections and a ranked-choice general election.

In November, Alaska voters voted down the repeal by about 0.2% of 320,985 votes cast.

The Alaska Beacon is an independent, donor-funded news organization. Alaskabeacon.com. The Anchorage Daily News contributed to this report.