The Senate Finance Committee adopted a committee substitute for Senate Bill 64, an elections bill that incorporates sponsor amendments and technical changes and moves to the next committee of referral with an attached fiscal note. The CS was adopted with no sustained objection after committee discussion.

“Good morning … Our office prepared several amendments to address concerns raised in conversations with various senators,” David Dunsmore, staff to Senator Bill Wilkowski (State Senator for East Anchorage), told the committee while summarizing the work‑draft CS.

Dunsmore summarized provisions removed and added in the finance CS. Removed provisions include sections related to electronic signatures, a provision on moving between house districts immediately before an election, and municipal public‑official financial disclosure changes. Added or revised provisions include requirements to codify and require data sharing between the Department of Revenue’s Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) Division and the Division of Elections for voter registration and residency confirmation; an obligation for the Division of Elections to notify the public and the legislature within 14 days of a data breach of confidential election data that occurs before certification; and provisions allowing voters to opt out of voter registration through the PFD application process.

Other changes Dunsmore described: the inactivity period that triggers voter‑roll cleanup was changed from “two general elections” to 28 months; review of the master voter register was changed to annual from every two years; a rural community liaison’s collaboration list was narrowed to municipalities and tribes; language assistance was clarified to be provided “to the extent practicable” consistent with federal law; recency for documentary ID (utility bills, bank statements, paychecks, government checks) was shortened from 90 days to 60 days; risk‑limiting audit procedures will be required by regulation during the state review board process; and the bill will require ballot‑tracking systems to be purchased from domestic companies and to use multi‑factor authentication for voter verification.

Senator Wilkowski described the bill as the product of bipartisan work, saying, “It is … a bipartisan bill in my opinion, that will clean up our voter rolls,” and said the CS addresses rural and military voters who in some districts had ballots not counted during the last election. Committee members asked whether the CS creates statewide vote‑by‑mail (it does not) and whether the Lieutenant Governor’s Office and Division of Elections had been involved; Dunsmore said the sponsor’s office worked extensively with the Lieutenant Governor’s staff and Division of Elections staff, taking their input into account.

The committee reviewed an updated fiscal note for the CS from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), component 21 (Division of Elections). The fiscal note shows an FY27 operating cost of $338,800 UGF, one permanent position and five temporary positions, and recurring costs leveling to roughly $290,100 in subsequent years. Committee members were told the change to annual master‑register review likely increases operating cost from the prior approach and was informally estimated to be roughly $60,000 a year on a biannual basis by staff discussion.

Senator Kiel moved adoption of the CS as the working document and later moved that the committee report out the CS with the attached fiscal note and individual recommendations. An initial objection to the report was raised and then withdrawn after the objectioner said more time may be needed to review the CS and to coordinate with the minority leader; no sustained objection remained and the CS was reported to the next committee of referral (rules) with the fiscal note attached.