If approved by voters Nov. 8, Ballot Measure 1 will allow qualified Alaskan residents to register to vote when applying for the Permanent Fund Dividend. Judging from the official election pamphlet issued by the Division of Elections, there’s not much opposition to this initiative. Nobody submitted a statement of opposition. But the supporting arguments troubled me. And after a little research, I surprised myself by deciding to vote against it.
I didn’t hesitate to put my signature on the initiative petition when it was being promoted last November. At the time it seemed like a sensible idea. I thought about how successful the PFD’s “Pick. Click. Give” program has been, and how it’s been used effectively for developing rosters of eligible jurors. So why not use it for voter registration?
Well, according to state officials implementing the initiative would cost almost a $1 million, and it will increase the Division of Elections annual spending by $300,000.
Those figures come from the election pamphlet, and they don’t square well with the supporting statement prepared by Kim Reitmeier, president of ANCSA Regional Association; Aaron Schutt, CEO of Doyon Limited; and Tim Kascillas, a military veteran attending college at the University of Alaska Anchorage. They’re saying it will “make government more efficient and save taxpayer dollars.”
I also have trouble with part of their last argument. I don’t understand how they can claim this measure will “protect the fundamental right of every eligible Alaskan citizen to vote.” If we don’t have enough voter protections already in place, then something else in our system is seriously broken and needs to fixed more directly.
So, if it’s not really about government efficiency or voting rights, then who is the measure intended to help?
It won’t do anything for new residents or college students arriving from another state. They only need to reside here for 30 days to be eligible to vote. But they won’t be able to apply for the PFD for more than a year after moving here.
Nor will it help all young people. They can legally register to vote 90 days before their 18th birthday. But if it’s an election year and their birthday is after June 30, they won’t be able to use the PFD application to register.
Besides, kids who have grown up in the electronic age shouldn’t need anything more than the existing online process to register.
As for people over 18, I estimate about 25,000 adults aren’t registered. That’s based on U.S. Census Bureau records and data from the Division of Elections.
The bigger problem is the 225,000 registered voters who didn’t bother going to the polls during the 2014 general election. Ballot Measure 1 won’t solve that.
Living in a democracy is easy. Participating one day a year should be as well. Being informed and actively engaged is another matter. It’s work that never ends.
But it’s not equal work because we don’t all have the same intellectual capacity to understand the complex issues of our modern society. There’s also the matter of free time. For instance, as a single, retired person, I have a lot more time to keep up with the issues than a single, working parent does.
There’s plenty of other reasons why people aren’t as informed as they could be. A friend of mine once told me he doesn’t pay attention to politics because it’s too divisive. Another says she’s too overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problems we face. They both vote, but I’d argue they’ve chosen to be less informed than I am. And they’ll tell me I’m wasting my time because I’ll never make a difference.
My point is that making voter registration easier for a small segment of the population isn’t going to educate anyone who, for one reason or another, chooses not to be informed. And it’s likely that a significant majority of those who haven’t registered won’t suddenly care enough to pay attention or vote.
All things considered, I’d be supporting Ballot Measure 1 if it was going to reduce the cost of registering voters and maintaining records and statistics.
But it doesn’t do that.
And it won’t do anything to help or encourage the electorate to become more involved in the daily responsibilities of our democratic processes.
• Rich Moniak is a retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector.
