The Alaska Division of Elections has approved a ballot initiative for the Aug. 16 primary election. On Monday, the division certified the PFD Voter Registration initiative had received enough signatures to appear on the ballot. The initiative proposes allowing Alaskans to register to vote or update their voter registration through a simple Web form that appears alongside the annual Permanent Fund Dividend application online. By clicking a check box, each PFD applicant may allow the state’s dividend division to share his or her information with the Division of Elections, automatically registering that applicant to vote.
According to the elections division, the initiative petition had 34,901 qualified signatures, more than 6,000 above the required limit of 28,545, or 10 percent of the turnout in the last general election. Organizers of the petition turned in more than 40,000 signatures, but more than 5,200 were disqualified.
The signatures also met minimum limits in 31 of 40 Alaska House districts; an initiative is required to get signatures from at least 7 percent of the general election turnout in 30 of 40 House districts.
In downtown Juneau, the initiative received 1,171 signatures; in the Mendenhall Valley, it received 1,291. Both figures were more than twice the minimum needed to meet the district standard.
