Alaska\u2019s political candidates are flocking to Fairbanks this week for the Alaska Federation of Natives annual conference. Attendees will hear from those vying for U.S. Senate, U.S. House and the Alaska Legislature.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll also hear from those backing Ballot Measure 1, the sole voter intiative on this fall\u2019s general-election ballot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is a step in the right direction, both toward a more efficient government and a democratic system that\u2019s more accessible,\u201d said John-Henry Heckendorn, the Anchorage-based campaign manager for the ballot measure.<\/p>\n
If approved by voters on Nov. 8, Ballot Measure 1 would allow Alaskans to register to vote when they apply for their PFD each year. Formally, the measure allows the Alaska Division of Elections and the Permanent Fund Dividend Division to share information. <\/p>\n
Informally, it would create a small online button on the annual PFD application. Click it, and the Division of Elections would register you as a voter or update your registration with your latest address.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally, we\u2019re advocating for a small procedural change \u2026 that is a first step and lays the groundwork for future (voting) modernization efforts,\u201d Heckendorn said by phone.<\/p>\n
In summer 2015, the Alaska Division of Elections estimated about 70,000 new voters would be added to Alaska\u2019s rolls under the proposal.<\/p>\n
Other estimates have stretched between 35,000 and 113,000 \u2014 the initiative may also remove dead and ineligible voters from the rolls.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf somebody has moved out of Alaska and registers somewhere else, they\u2019re taken off our voter rolls,\u201d Heckendorn said.<\/p>\n
Heckendorn typically works with Democratic campaigns and initiatives, but Ballot Measure 1 has the support of Republicans as well as Democrats. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, each endorsed the proposal earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Murkowski, in a prepared statement, said it \u201cimproves the registration system and reduces opportunities for voter fraud\u201d while making registering more convenient.<\/p>\n
You have to look to find someone against the initiative \u2014 even the Alaska Division of Elections couldn\u2019t find someone willing to write in opposition for the state\u2019s voter pamphlet.<\/p>\n
Paul Jenkins, editor of AnchorageDailyPlanet.com, has offered perhaps the widest-distributed opposition to the measure.<\/p>\n
In a column published last weekend in the Alaska Dispatch News, he suggested that the cost of implementing the measure \u2014 $900,000 up front and as much as $300,000 per year \u2014 isn\u2019t worth it to register about 70,000 people who are \u201ctoo uninformed or disinterested to register\u201d under existing programs.<\/p>\n
He suggests that the measure \u201cappears aimed simply at advancing the political left\u2019s agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n
It appears, however, that the $900,000 cost estimate initially provided by the Division of Elections may have included a now-completed computer server upgrade.<\/p>\n
According to state records, the elections division has spent more than $500,000 on an upgrade completed in time for this year\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n
Election Day is Nov. 8. Early voting begins Oct. 24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alaska\u2019s political candidates are flocking to Fairbanks this week for the Alaska Federation of Natives annual conference. Attendees will hear from those vying for U.S. Senate, U.S. House and the Alaska Legislature. They\u2019ll also hear from those backing Ballot Measure 1, the sole voter intiative on this fall\u2019s general-election ballot. \u201cI think this is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":27747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-27746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27746"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=27746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}