The Independent View: Alaska Open Primary Top-Two Bill Has Hearing Dates

Thanks to Richard Winger of Ballot Access News for this post.

Alaska Representative Gabrielle Ledoux (R-Anchorage) introduced HB 200 on March 29. It converts Alaska Elections to an Open Primary Top-Two Elections.

HB 200:

"An Act establishing a top two nonpartisan open primary election system for elective state executive and state and national legislative offices; repealing the special runoff election for the office of United States senator or United States representative; changing appointment procedures relating to precinct watchers and members of precinct election boards, election district absentee and questioned ballot counting boards, and the Alaska Public Offices Commission; requiring certain written notices to appear in election pamphlets and polling places; relating to declarations of candidacy and letters of intent; and amending the definition of 'political party.'"

The Bill has a hearing on Monday, April 10th, at 1 pm, in the House Judiciary Committee. The Committee will meet again on the Bill on Wednesday, April 12th, for a vote.

CLICK HERE to read the entire HB 200 Bill.

As always Richard finds the problems.

- The Bill appears to provide for Party Labels on the Ballots without any “Prefers” verbiage, which means that if it passed as written, it would be vulnerable to a Freedom of Association challenge. The California and Washington Top-Two systems survived Freedom of Association challenges by providing that Party Labels on the Ballot should be prefaced by the word “Prefers” or “Preference”, so as to make it clear that the Parties did not Nominate the listed Candidates.

- The Bill makes it more difficult for Groups to become and remain Qualified Parties. Currently Alaska lets a Group become a Qualified Party if it polls 3% for a particular Statewide Race, but the identity of the Race varies each year, depending on which Offices are up. But that would be Deleted. The only way a Group could become a Qualified Party would be with a Registration Drive.

No Party in Alaska has ever gained Qualified status the first time via Registration. The Qualified Parties in Alaska in the years since Alaska became a State all first gained Party Status by meeting the Vote Test.

They include:

1982 - The Libertarian Party

1982 - The Alaskan Independence Party with the help of a Court Case

1990 - The Green Party

1998 - The Republican Moderate Party

Alaska's "Political Party" is an organized group of voters that represents a political program and meets one of the following criteria:

- A political group fielded a Candidate for Governor who received at least 3% of the total votes cast for that office at the preceding General Election, or has Registered voters in the State equal in number to at least 3% of the Total votes cast for Governor at the preceding general Election.

- A political group fielded a Candidate for the United States Senate who received at least 3% of the total votes cast for that office at the preceding General Election, or has Registered voters in the State equal in number to least 3% of the Total votes cast for United States Senator at the preceding General Election.

- A political group fielded a Candidate for the United States House of Representatives who received at least 3% of the total votes cast for that office at the preceding General Election, or has Registered voters in the State equal in number to least 3% of the total votes cast for United States Representative at the preceding General Election.

As of April 2016, there were four Recognized Political Parties in Alaska:

Alaska Democratic Party
Alaskan Independence Party
Alaska Libertarian Party
Alaska Republican Party

A Political group is a group of like-minded Registered voters that seek applications to become a recognized Political party. As of April 2016, there were five organized Political groups in Alaska:

Alaska Constitution Party
Veterans Party of Alaska
Green Party of Alaska
Twelve Visions Party of Alaska
UCES' Clowns Party

2017 Recognized Political Parties:

Alaska Democratic Party
Alaska Green Party
Alaskan Independence Party
Alaska Libertarian Party
Alaska Republican Party
Alaska Republican Moderate Party