There’s been much talk in the Alaska State Capitol about the United States being “a republic, not a democracy” among the MAGA extremist right. It’s true most laws are made by elected representatives, not by a direct vote of the people. But in Alaska, Article XI of our constitution identifies initiatives and referendums as devices that permit the electorate to participate directly in the lawmaking process. Respecting the will of the people is the ultimate moral value of all true patriots.
Remember when a cruise ship tax was approved by the voters? Ballot Measure 2 was passed in 2006, charging a $46 per person fee on cruise ship passengers. Alaska law bizarrely allows the Legislature to strike down ballot initiatives after two years. Unsurprisingly, after much corporate-funded PR, and likely some boodle stuffed into Legislators’ pockets, Gov. Parnell signed a new law, lowering the fee to $34.50, with an additional $15 reduction for ships that stop in either Juneau or Ketchikan. The State of Alaska today only collects a $5 Commercial Passenger Vessel Fee. The people’s will has died the death of a thousand cuts. I didn’t like it then and I don’t like it now.
Fast forward to November 2020. Alaskans approved Ballot Measure 2, enacting open primaries, dark money limits and ranked choice voting (RCV). We’ve used the system for a few years and have the bipartisan Legislative majority to show for it. Two years ago, bills were submitted in the Legislature to repeal ranked choice voting. Luckily, they did not pass into law. In late 2023, sufficient signature books were submitted to put the question onto the ballot again.
So we voted to reconsider RCV, via another vote this last November. After all recounts and challenges were completed, the majority of Alaskans voted to retain RCV. I nearly passed a kidney stone when I saw that a MAGA extremist submitted a prefile bill this January to roll back RCV. The ink was barely dry before this bill was submitted, giving the middle finger to Alaskans’ votes. Unbelievable. Hopefully this awful bill won’t move out of committee.
Lately I see the opponents to RCV will be collecting signatures again to put a review of RCV onto a future ballot. Never mind we’ve affirmed this at the ballot box twice in the last five years. Still, this is the right way to revisit an initiative approved by the Alaskan people. Which brings me to the point of this letter.
Governor Dunleavy’s election reform bills are an affront to the principle of respecting the outcome of free and fair elections. Buried deep inside is a provision to roll back automatic voter registration with Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) applications. What, you ask is causing me discomfort with this?
Back in 2018, Alaskan voters passed Ballot Measure 1, approving automatic voter registration when Alaskans complete their PFD application. Unlike the recent vote on RCV, the margin wasn’t even close. A total of 65% voted in favor of Ballot Measure 1 and only 35% voted in opposition. The margin of victory represented over 80,000 more votes in favor. Now that’s a mandate.
Registering to vote is easy enough in larger cities. You can register with the Division of Elections office downtown, at the Department of Motor Vehicles, or with your PFD application. But it’s a different story in our smaller communities. None of the smaller cities in Alaska have Division of Elections offices. Some have DMV offices, but many, like Hoonah or Angoon, do not. In smaller towns, PFD voter registration is the only convenient way to register to vote.
The rationale for rolling back PFD voter registration is to save a few bucks. Thousands of voters in the last election were able to vote because of PFD voter registration. Democracy works best when all of us have access to the ballot box. This is not the place to cut corners.
More fundamentally, if we the people vote for something, the Legislature should not overturn it. Yet that is exactly what the governor proposes with HB 63 and SB 70. The governor is in essence telling the majority of Alaskans to pound sand if they don’t like his bill. If like me, this causes you gastric distress, now is the time to speak up.
• Robert Welton is a Douglas resident.
