Republican-backed elections bill unlikely to advance this year, key senator says

JUNEAU — A Republican-backed proposal to change Alaska’s election system likely will not advance to a final vote this year, said a top Republican in the Alaska Senate.

“I don’t plan on trying to get it out this year,” said Sen. Roger Holland, R-Anchorage.

“With so many other priorities in the air right now, including the budget, I don’t know if there’s time,” he said.

Holland is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is currently examining Senate Bill 39, a proposal from Sen. Mike Shower, R-Wasilla that would impose new security measures on the way Alaskans vote.

Critics said in public testimony Saturday that some of those measures are so oppressive that they amount to voter suppression, a charge Shower disputes.

No hearings have been scheduled next week, and the Legislature’s regular session ends May 19.

Shower’s staff said the bill could be amended to include parts of a Democratic-backed voting-rights proposal, House Bill 66. That bill, from Rep. Chris Tuck, D-Anchorage, would increase access to absentee voting, including voting by mail.

Staff for Tuck said negotiations are at an early stage, and both bills are early in the committee process within the Alaska Legislature.

Nationally, Republican-led legislatures in Texas, Florida, Iowa, Montana, Georgia and Arizona have passed legislation that imposes new restrictions on voting in an attempt to increase election security. Critics have said those bills disproportionately disenfranchise Democratic voters.

Senate Bill 39 is written differently from those bills but it has some elements in common, including a ban on so-called “ballot harvesting” and restrictions on third-party absentee-ballot efforts.