On Friday, the Alaska Superior Court denied a motion filed on behalf of the League of Women Voters, Arctic Village Council, and two individual Alaskans who asserted that the state violated the due process rights of voters when it failed to notify voters of clerical errors and rejected their ballots without any opportunity to correct the errors.
The ACLU of Alaska, Native American Rights Fund, and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, with support from law firm Perkins Coie, filed the lawsuit in August 2022 after the June special all-mail election where the Division of Elections (DOE) rejected over 5,000 cast ballots. The ballots were rejected because of deficiencies that could have been fixed had the plaintiffs been informed of these errors. These common but easily remedied errors include insufficient witnessing, a failure to provide a voter identification number or an identifier that did not match voter records, and a missing voter signature.
“We are disappointed in this court ruling; while the Division of Elections has the ability to implement a notice-and-cure policy that would ensure ballots aren’t thrown out over minor, fixable errors, the court has ruled that it is properly in the scope of the legislature to implement this policy,” said Ruth Botstein, Legal Director for the ACLU of Alaska.
While the court decision does not require DOE to establish a notice-and-cure system, the court noted that it would be within the Alaska legislature’s power to do so. During litigation, the Division of Elections agreed that, if ordered to by the legislature, it could implement a notice-and-cure system without increasing voter fraud or decreasing the integrity of Alaska elections.
“This court decision falls at the end of the first week of the Alaska legislative session, where decision-makers from across the state are already working on a reform package to fix a variety of elections issues,” said Botstein. “The outcome of this case now directly calls on the legislature to act. Elected officials must include a notice-and-cure provision in the reform bill to ensure that all eligible Alaskans can cast their ballot and have it counted, even when a small, fixable mistake is made.”
