Senate majority plans comprehensive election‑reform bill addressing voter rolls, absentee witness signatures and result speed

The Alaska Senate majority caucus said it will introduce a comprehensive election‑reform bill that aims to address voter‑roll accuracy, the absentee ballot witness signature requirement and the speed of delivering election results.

Senator Wilkowski said the caucus will move forward with a bill after describing a 2022 research finding that Alaska’s registered voters equaled roughly 106% of the adult population and noting public concern about voter‑roll maintenance. “We have a bill that will address some of the voter cleanup, voter roll issues that people have expressed concern with,” she said.

On absentee ballots, the caucus highlighted the witness‑signature rule as a recurring problem. Wilkowski said the requirement has led to the disqualification of about 1,300 ballots in the most recent election and “several thousand in previous elections,” and that many affected voters are military personnel and residents of rural Alaska. She said the Division of Elections does not verify witness signatures and cited testimony that even an obviously fictitious witness name would not necessarily cause a ballot to be rejected.

Wilikowski stated the bill will also address “slowness in getting results out” and will include provisions related to special‑needs ballots and concerns about deepfakes used in campaigns. She said she expected the election bill to be introduced the next day.

Caucus leaders stressed the measure is intended to be comprehensive and to strike a balance between ballot security and access for remote and military voters. No draft text or fiscal notes were released at the caucus briefing.