Alaska Supreme Court to rule on whether incarcerated candidate can appear on U.S. House ballot

The Alaska Supreme Court is set to rule on whether a jailed man can appear on Alaska’s U.S. House ballot.

Eric Hafner, a New Jersey man who was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for threatening elected officials, has never resided in Alaska. He came in sixth in the 12-way primary for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat, but after the third- and fourth-place finishers — both Republicans — dropped out, Hafner’s name was placed on the ballot.

Under Alaska law, the top four vote-getters in the nonpartisan primary advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation.

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Ian Wheeles on Tuesday denied a request by the Alaska Democratic Party to have Hafner’s name removed from Alaska ballots, reasoning that including Hafner’s name on the ballot was not likely to change the election results and that removing his name at this stage — after the Division of Elections has already sent ballots to be printed — would risk the integrity of the November election.

The Alaska Democratic Party appealed the decision to the Alaska Supreme Court, which agreed Wednesday to consider the case on an expedited basis. Oral arguments are scheduled to be heard via video conference Thursday morning, and can be viewed online.

The U.S. House race is largely seen as a contest between Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, who received nearly 51% of primary votes last month, and Republican challenger Nick Begich III, who came in second to Peltola with 26% after losing to her twice in 2022.

Third-place finisher Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom and fourth-place finisher Matthew Salisbury dropped out of the race after receiving 20% and 0.6% of the vote respectively. Both faced significant pressure to drop out from leaders within the Alaska Republican Party, who sought to consolidate support for Begich.

After Dahlstrom and Salisbury dropped out, the Division of Elections placed the names of fifth-place finisher John Wayne Howe — chair of the Alaska Independence Party, who received 0.6% of the vote — and Hafner, who received 0.4% of the nearly 109,000 primary votes cast, on the ballot for the U.S. House race.

The Alaska Democratic Party sued the state earlier this month seeking to stop Hafner’s name from appearing on the ballot. The party’s argument was twofold. First, plaintiffs argued that Alaska law allows only for the fifth-place finisher to be elevated onto the ballot on account of a candidate withdrawing from the race, but not the sixth-place finisher. Second, plaintiffs argued that even if the sixth-place finisher could appear on the ballot, Hafner was not eligible to run in Alaska because he would not be able to establish residency in the state on account of his incarceration 3,000 miles away.

The U.S. Constitution stipulates that elected officials must reside in the state they are elected to represent. Candidates can run for office without residing in the state as long as they agree to establish residency once elected. But plaintiffs said that given Hafner is serving his prison sentence in New York, and had not so much as visited the state, it would be impossible for him to become a resident.

Hafner, who has limited access to phone calls and no access to the internet, has at various points suggested that he could meet the residency requirement if granted compassionate release or a presidential pardon, or if he wins an ongoing appeal.

Hafner has previously run — before his incarceration — for other U.S. House seats as a Democrat in Oregon and as a Republican in Hawaii. His mother, Carol Hafner, also ran for Alaska’s U.S. House seat in 2018 despite never residing in Alaska.

The Alaska Democratic Party argued that though Hafner, who is running as a Democrat, was not likely to win the election, he could skew results by taking votes meant for Peltola.

Under Alaska’s ranked choice voting system, a candidate must receive more than 50% of first-place votes to win outright. Otherwise, the election is decided by a ranked-choice tabulation or instant runoff.

The Alaska Republican Party intervened in the case, siding with the state, which argued against removing Hafner’s name from the ballot. Attorneys for the state wrote in court filings that delaying the printing of ballots could jeopardize the on-time delivery of ballots. The first batch of ballots is due to be mailed to overseas voters on Sept. 21.

Alaska Republican Party Chair Carmela Warfield has repeatedly pointed to Hafner’s inclusion on the ballot as evidence that Alaskans should reject ranked choice voting and open primaries, which were adopted by ballot measure in 2020. A separate measure will appear on the November ballot, asking Alaska voters whether they would like to keep the voting system in place.

Leaders of the Alaska Democratic Party have in turn blamed the Alaska Republican Party for Hafner’s inclusion on the ballot, pointing to the GOP’s role in pressuring Republican candidates other than Begich to drop out of the race.