OPINION: Ensuring equal ballot access for all Alaskans

At YWCA Alaska, we are on a mission to eliminate racism, empower women and promote peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.

We read with dismay Alaska House Speaker Cathy Tilton’s recent comments indicating that she and her party killed a voting rights bill in the previous legislative session on the grounds that it would be bad for them politically, since it would reduce the rejection rate of rural ballots, specifically from voters who are overwhelmingly Alaska Natives. Speaker Tilton finds herself in historically dubious company in openly admitting to racially discriminatory legislative actions as they relate to voting. In addition to seven states of the former Confederacy, Alaska was subject to the preclearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 due to discrimination against Indigenous voters. A 1915 territorial voting act required “Native Indians” to take a test and to undertake “a total abandonment of any tribal customs or relationship” in order to be granted the right to vote. From 1924 until 1970, Alaska employed an English literacy test that was primarily used to disqualify Alaska Native people from voting.

Speaker Tilton now takes the torch from the racists of the past who used literacy to determine who was American enough to vote and instead uses witness signatures and other administrative burdens to accomplish the same goal, which is to disenfranchise minority voters. It is shameful and the people of Alaska, of all races, deserve better from those elected to serve us.

We call for the Legislature to take up the previously considered voting rights legislation at the commencement of the upcoming session and to ensure the provisions which ensure Alaska Natives’ ballots are not improperly rejected based on technicalities such as lack of witness signature are included. We also call on Director Carol Beecher of the Division of Elections to ensure all precincts are open and properly operating in every community for every election. Finally, we call on voters to vote “no” on Ballot Measure 2, so the people of Alaska retain the power of the ballot for themselves instead of handing that power back to political parties. Through Speaker Tilton’s words, we see just how little they value voters’ voices and how quickly they will silence us if it benefits them politically.

Jessie Lavoie is the CEO of YWCA Alaska.

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