Alaska makes it easy for people to keep voting in state elections after moving to other states. And the state’s new elections director says she’s considering ending a membership in a nonprofit that tried to combat fraud by helping states coordinate and maintain accurate voter lists.<\/p>\n
Those two related facts emerged from a series of questions by state lawmakers about voting issues to Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher during a hearing Thursday at the state Capitol. While Beecher’s comments were mundane in stating she is evaluating the membership and possible alternatives, they came as several other states are canceling memberships in the nonprofit following false claims of anti-Republican activity by former President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
Beecher, appointed the new elections director about three weeks ago, immediately attracted controversy for stating she didn’t know if the 2020 presidential election was fairly conducted, and for being a registered Republican who has donated to Trump and other GOP candidates. Her predecessor, Gail Fenumiai, was not affiliated with a political party and engaged in no known actions on behalf of candidates.<\/p>\n
Members of the Senate State Affairs Committee sent a list of questions to Beecher the day before the hearing, largely focusing on problematic aspects of state elections in 2020 and 2022, as well as asking her to address widespread unfounded claims such as Dominion voting machines being rigged. The new director and several other top officials involved with the election division appeared at Thursday’s meeting,<\/p>\n
The issue of out-of-state voting arose when Sen. Bill Wielechowski, an Anchorage Democrat, noted during his campaign he knocked on doors where the listed occupant was a longtime voter, but had actually moved out-of-state years ago, according to the actual occupant.<\/p>\n
“How is it those people are still voting in our elections?” he asked.<\/p>\n
Currently the decision to keep or remove a person from the voter rolls is based on the person’s intention to return to Alaska, which frequently cannot be disproven, said Carol Thompson, operations manager for the elections division. The same standard applies to a person who moves to a different district in Alaska while still voting in the old one.<\/p>\n
“The division has no way of knowing what a person intends,” she said, adding it is something that can be modified through legislation.<\/p>\n