State lawmakers had some sharp questions on Monday for Alaska’s Division of Elections about its decision to share the state’s full, unredacted voter list with the Department of Justice.
The state turned over the voter list to the federal government in December after a series of requests from the Department of Justice. At first, in August, the Division of Elections shared only the public, commercially available list. The DOJ followed up later that month demanding the full list, including a range of information designated by state law as confidential: voters’ date of birth, their driver’s license or partial social security number, a status code, and their address, even if the voter marked it confidential.
Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who oversees the Division of Elections, announced the state had transferred the list shortly before Christmas.
The DOJ plans to check the list and flag ineligible voters to be removed from the state’s voter rolls, according to an agreement between the state and federal government. Some experts have raised concerns that the systems the federal government uses to check eligibility are frequently inaccurate.
At a joint meeting of the state House Judiciary and State Affairs Committees, lawmakers asked why Alaska didn’t challenge the request.
Department of Law attorney Rachel Witty said the state started from the premise that the Justice Department was operating in good faith and that Alaska should find a way to comply.
“We carefully evaluated the request to see whether there was a legal basis for it, and determined that we were able to cooperate under state and federal law,” Witty said.
She cited a state law that allows the federal government to access confidential voter information for “governmental purposes authorized under law.”
Some attorneys invited to testify at the hearing, including former Alaska Attorney General Bruce Botelho, argued the state had overstepped its authority in agreeing to share the list with the federal government.
“This agreement … exceeds the lawful authority of the lieutenant governor,” Botelho told lawmakers. “It misconstrues federal statutes that the Department of Justice invokes, and it invites unconstitutional federal interference with Alaska's control over its voter rolls and with the privacy rights guaranteed by our state Constitution.”
Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, in an opinion column published in the Juneau Empire on Tuesday, said the criticism was “misleading” and that Alaska retained “full control” over which voters remain on its rolls.
“The DOJ cannot remove a single voter from our rolls. Its role is limited to identifying potential issues — such as duplicate registrations or individuals who may have moved or passed away,” Dahlstrom wrote.
Dahlstrom said the Division of Elections would review any voters flagged as ineligible and only remove them from voter rolls if allowed by state and federal law.
As of Monday, the Department of Justice had not identified ineligible voters to be removed from the state’s rolls, Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher said.
A variety of states have challenged the DOJ’s request, including many led by Republicans. Three states have seen federal judges dismiss the DOJ’s efforts to obtain their voter roles, notching early victories in what’ll likely be a yearslong court battle.
Lawmakers in the Democrat-heavy bipartisan coalition that controls the House said they were concerned by the Division of Elections’ decision to turn over the data.
“This is a bell that cannot be unrung,” said Rep. Ashley Carrick, a Fairbanks Democrat, quoting from a memo from the Legislature’s lawyers contending that the data transfer may be unlawful.
Legislative Counsel Andrew Dunmire, in a Feb. 17 memo to legislators, said federal judges considering challenges to the DOJ’s requests in other states had found the Justice Department was “‘obfuscate[ing] its true motives’ and ‘engag[ing] in conduct raising suspicion about the purposes for which it seeks statewide unredacted voter registration lists.’”
“If those findings are found to be true and the DOJ is not using Alaska's (voter registration list) for ‘governmental purposes authorized under law,’ then disclosure of the confidential data under AS 15.07.195(c)(1) was improper,” Dunmire wrote.
Carrick said she was concerned the Justice Department could misuse Alaskans’ personal information.
“We don't really know what's going to happen with our data in the immediate or longer term future, and the retention of that data is extremely suspect,” she said.
But the reaction was mixed. Some Republicans, including Wasilla Rep. Steve St. Clair, said they supported the state’s decision to share its voter rolls with the federal government.
“Our voter rolls are a mess, and we haven't really been able to fix it,” St. Clair said. “I don't think they have any nefarious purposes. We have a pretty bad history of protecting our own information, so I don't really see what the issue is with this.”
Michigan State University political science professor Erica Frantz, who studies authoritarian politics and democratic backsliding, told lawmakers she saw the DOJ’s request as a worrying sign.
“This sort of behavior is part of a broader pattern that we're seeing from the administration in terms of efforts to both consolidate power in the executive in ways that undermine checks and balances and the ability of states to channel to serve as a check to the federal government,” she said. “This is just a micro-level action that's part of a broader process that has generated concerns among authoritarian experts.”
