The recent negative respondees to my Senate Bill 39 commentary claim that I want to exclude or restrict citizens from voting, which is absolute baloney. I made it perfectly clear that every citizen who wants to register to vote and wants to vote should be able to readily do so. I also pointed out that prior to 2020 and the pandemic, Alaskans had no problems getting to the polls or requesting an absentee ballot. And I also mentioned that special efforts have for years been made to accommodate any Bush community needing voting assistance.
SB 39, as proposed, will not make it harder for anyone who wants to register to vote; nor will it make any harder for them to vote.
So why all these anti-SB39 squawks? The answer becomes fairly obvious with the remarks from two responders. One said that this is just part of the Republicans across the nation now introducing bills to restrict voting. Another responder said that the Republicans are in the minority and will lose power without suppressing voting. Note that 14.9% of registered Alaska voters are Democrats, while 27.2% are Republicans.
It’s pretty obvious that the screaming opposition is coming from the left side of the political spectrum. No matter how reasonable and sensible this proposal may be, if proposed by Republicans it apparently must be horrible and must be opposed. How dare they try to make it harder to cheat.
Many Alaskans have become concerned about election integrity over the past few years, especially after the 2018 election tampering issue in Rep. Gabrielle Ledoux’s district. SB 39 is intended to address these concerns by improving “ballot chain of custody and election integrity,” and maintain voter confidence in our election system.
And note: If there is any shift toward the state mailing out unrequested ballots — as a number of responders are demanding — we will absolutely have to have an electoral system in place that can deal with the associated opportunity for messing with unwanted ballots.
— Jim Lieb
Palmer
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