Alaska Legislature on track to pass election reform bill after years of failed attempts
The bill establishes a ballot curing process that allows voters to correct minor errors that might otherwise result in their ballots being rejected. It creates a ballot tracking system so voters can receive updates on their absentee ballots by phone or email, much as Anchorage voters are already able to do in municipal elections. It adds tribal IDs to the list of acceptable voter identification. It creates a rural community liaison within the Division of Elections to improve outreach and access in rural Alaska.
Those changes have been long called for by Alaska Native advocates, predominantly in rural communities, where the Division of Elections has repeatedly failed to provide equitable access to the polls.
In both the 2022 and the 2024 elections, polling places failed to open for the primary and general elections in several Western Alaska communities due to staffing and other issues. In the 2024 election, the Division of Elections sent the incorrect ballots to several communities in Southwest Alaska. In a special 2022 election conducted mostly by mail, thousands of ballots were rejected due to minor errors such as a missing signature. The rejected ballots were cast disproportionately in rural Western Alaska communities and in urban districts with a high share of voters for whom English is a second language.
The bipartisan elections bill also makes it easier to remove Alaska voters from the rolls. Alaska election officials had long said that existing laws don’t allow them to easily remove voters who have moved from the state, leading to ever-growing voter rolls after the establishment of automatic voter registration through the Permanent Fund dividend application.
https://www.adn.com/politics/alaska-legislature/2026/03/24/alaska-legislature-on-track-to-pass-election-reform-bill-after-years-of-failed-attempts/