House Judiciary Committee corrects voter-record count, reports HJR 43 out of committee

The House Judiciary Committee on March 30 adopted an amendment to House Joint Resolution 43 that updates the number of Alaska voter records reported shared with the federal government and reported the resolution out of committee with individual recommendations and an attached fiscal note.

Chair Representative Gray offered Amendment 1 to fix a clerical error in the resolution, telling the committee the original draft stated "approximately 570,000 Alaskan voters" had records shared with the federal government, and that the correct figure is "over 600,000". After a brief objection was withdrawn, the committee adopted the amendment and a member moved to report the resolution out of committee. With no further objections, HJR 43 was reported out and Legislative Legal Services was authorized to make technical, conforming changes.

Representative Mina, who spoke in support of the resolution, said many constituents have expressed concern about the relationship between the State of Alaska and the U.S. Department of Justice over voter-roll information. Mina pointed the committee to AS 15.07.195(c) as the statutory provision that creates an exception allowing the state to share voter information and said the committee should review that statute if it wants to be more specific about the state's practices.

Representative Vance noted that the federal Department of Justice must follow federal law and that any federal use of data is constrained by those statutes and by memoranda of agreement with the Division of Elections. Vance said the committee should balance protecting Alaskans' data with the need to clean up voter rolls.

Chair Gray thanked Division of Elections director Beecher for responding to the committee's inquiries and updating the record count. Gray also observed on the record that other confidential data elements have been shared with a nongovernmental actor referenced in the transcript as "Eric," and that the Division has previously shared sensitive data (she cited Social Security numbers in her remarks). The record contains inconsistent or abbreviated references to that nongovernmental actor; the committee did not make a new factual finding about that actor during the hearing.

The committee's action on HJR 43 was procedural: adopting Amendment 1 to correct the numerical reference and reporting the resolution out of the House Judiciary Committee with individual recommendations and an attached fiscal note. The committee indicated no vote tally on the record beyond "hearing no objection."