New Alaska Division of Elections director won’t change her GOP voter registration

JUNEAU — The newly appointed Alaska Division of Elections director said she would stay “impartial” while executing the state’s election laws while also saying that she will not change her Republican voter registration.

Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, a Republican, on Wednesday appointed Carol Beecher, outgoing director of the state Child Support Services Division, to manage Alaska’s elections. Beecher had been a longtime donor to Republican candidates, including to Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Dahlstrom’s own recent election bid, and to Donald Trump when he was running for president in 2016.

“My political leanings and philosophies don’t play into the decisions that I make,” Beecher told reporters Thursday, emphasizing that she would strive to stay “neutral” and “impartial” while administering the state’s elections.

“It’s just essential that Alaskans can trust this process and know that it’s fair,” she said.

[Earlier coverage: Republican backer chosen to oversee Alaska elections]

Dahlstrom said she was unaware that Beecher had donated to her campaign last year, but said that she “strongly assumed” Beecher was a registered Republican. Alaska law requires that the state’s elections director “may not join, support or otherwise participate in a partisan political organization, faction, or activity, including but not limited to the making of political contributions.”

Beecher said that she would stop donating to candidates, but that she would not change her GOP voter registration.

When asked whether she agreed with Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent, Beecher said she would not “state an opinion on any of that.”

“It really is not germane to my position as the director because my position requires that I’m impartial; that I fulfill the laws that are put on the books for us to follow for the election process,” Beecher said. She emphasized that her role was not in policymaking, but administering the state’s election laws.

When pressed about the 2020 presidential election, Beecher said that a lot of people still had concerns about what “transpired” in recent national elections, which made people “question a lot of things.” But she didn’t elaborate in detail on what those questions were.

“I believe that President Biden was elected and that it was in accordance to the laws and requirements of the various states,” she said. “I know there’s been a lot of controversy about that issue. But I don’t know enough to know what happened in those various states. I know there’s still a lot of people who are concerned about that. And for that very purpose, we want to really make sure that Alaska, and Alaskans, can be confident in this election process so we can know that it’s fair, transparent and accessible.”

Alaska voters narrowly approved an initiative in 2020 that implemented an election system with open primaries and ranked choice general elections. The state House is expected to debate repealing that system through legislation. Former Gov. Sarah Palin and U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka, both Republicans, have launched efforts to repeal the new voting system through a citizens initiative.

Beecher donated to Tshibaka’s unsuccessful 2022 Senate campaign and worked in Palin’s office when she was governor. Beecher said that she enjoyed working for Palin, but that she doesn’t maintain a relationship with the former governor. Dahlstrom emphasized that her decision to certify Palin’s petition to repeal ranked choice voting was made before Beecher was appointed.

Longtime legislators and legislative aides said that the election director’s position is highly technical and complex, and questioned how Beecher would handle the new role. When pressed Thursday on how she would remedy some of the division’s most pressing challenges — such as some rural voters not having their ballots counted from November’s election — she said she would need to do more research.

“This is day two,” Beecher said. “So there’s a lot to learn. But I’m very happy to be here and I look forward to learning all these processes and being able to probably answer your questions more fully in the future.”

Dahlstrom would not disclose who else was on the short list for the director position, but said she had asked Beecher to apply. She said there were a lot of “fantastic people” currently working at the division, and that she had considered others currently working there who had applied.

Dahlstrom said she had mutual friends with Beecher and that they had worked in the same building for the past several years. She felt confident Beecher would do “an excellent job” while maintaining her neutrality, and that her former supervisors spoke highly of her.

Beecher herself said she believed she was qualified after administering the complex child support services program, which involved her eliminating “unnecessary positions” and examining how technology could be more effectively utilized.

“I’m really passionate about this state,” Beecher said about why she wanted the new job, which paid her predecessor, Gail Fenumiai, $159,614 per year. “I really want Alaska to be really proud of the elections.”

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The state uses paper ballots and Dominion voting machines to first tabulate the ballots at most precincts. Beecher said her focus would be on improving the transparency and integrity of the voting process.

“I don’t know enough about those yet,” she said about the state’s tabulation machines. “I do want to look into that and find out if there are any issues.”

[Fox News knew Trump’s voter fraud claims were ‘total BS,’ Dominion says]

Beecher’s appointment comes as states push back increasingly against a wave of election-related misinformation, and Dahlstrom — who is the top elected official charged with overseeing Alaska’s elections — has lamented the misinformation that surrounded Alaska’s recent election. Beecher didn’t comment on those concerns, and reiterated that she was still getting up to speed with her new role.

Wasilla Republican state Sen. Mike Shower, who has long questioned the security of the state’s election system and tried to change by-mail ballot handling procedures through legislation, said he looked forward to working with the new elections director.

“There is still work to be done on our election system,” he said. Shower added that he believed Dahlstrom and the new leadership at the Division of Elections “are motivated to help to do so.”

Democratic lawmakers were more circumspect.

“I think given what’s happened since election night in November 2020, progressives have earned the right to be anxious about partisanship impacting elections,” said Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage.

Commissioners and the governor’s appointees to boards and commissions need to be confirmed by a majority vote of the Legislature. But that does not occur at the division director level.