Election workers rejected 1,303 absentee ballots in Alaska’s recent election, many for lacking a witness signature

Alaska election workers rejected 1,303 absentee ballots in the November election, in many cases because they were missing a witness signature, according to data obtained by the Anchorage Daily News.

Election workers rejected 512 ballots because of “improper or insufficient witnessing” — a requirement that some lawmakers say is unnecessary.

Overall, the state rejected roughly 1.65% of the 78,811 absentee ballots received in the recent election, including those delivered by mail, through in-person absentee voting, by electronic delivery, or special needs voting. The rate was similar in the 2022 general election, when roughly 1.58% of absentee votes were rejected.

In most races, the rejected votes did not alter the outcome. But the errors that caused most ballots to be rejected could have been fixed by voters if the state had adopted a legislative proposal that was on the verge of passing earlier last year, which would have eliminated the witness signature requirement altogether.

In a tight state House race, the number of rejected ballots may have impacted the result.

Other common causes for ballot rejection included an incorrect voter identifier, which caused 118 ballots to be rejected across the state. The identifier refers to the voter information — such as a driver’s license number, date of birth or last four digits of their Social Security number — that must be written on the ballot envelope. In 57 cases, the ballot was rejected because the voter didn’t put any identifier on the envelope. And 105 ballots were rejected because they were missing a required signature from the voter.

Some ballots were rejected because they were delivered too late, including 137 that were postmarked after Election Day, and 83 that arrived after election workers had stopped counting ballots.

Correctible errors on voters’ ballots — like a missing witness signature, missing voter signature or error in the voter identifier — are at the heart of an upcoming effort by lawmakers to reform the state’s election laws.

Anchorage Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski said he was working on legislation this year that would eliminate the witness requirement and allow voters to correct errors on their ballots if they are identified before Election Day. Such a process, known as ballot curing, already exists for Anchorage municipal elections and in two dozen states.

“Any votes that are thrown out for ministerial reasons, dumb bureaucratic reasons, meaningless reasons — it’s reprehensible, in my opinion,” said Wielechowski.

Rep. Sarah Vance, a Homer Republican who last year worked on election bills, said Tuesday that she supports legislative proposals to create a ballot curing process, and that the witness signature requirement may not be needed moving forward.

Several civil rights groups asked the state in 2022 to offer voters an option to correct those mistakes if they are received ahead of Election Day. The groups filed a lawsuit in Anchorage Superior Court after thousands of ballots were rejected in the state’s first by-mail election, held in June 2022.

“Overall, the smaller electorate numbers in Alaska and the frequency that we have really close elections certainly underscores the need for ballot notice and cure,” said Ruth Botstein, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska, which is representing the plaintiffs in the case.

Ahead of the 2024 election, the Division of Elections allowed several voters from Southwest Alaska to cure their ballots after division staff erroneously provided voters with the incorrect ballot. Botstein said that proved the state should offer ballot curing more widely.

“It illustrates the division knows everyone can make mistakes, and everyone deserves a chance to have their vote counted,” said Botstein.

Some members of the incoming House and Senate bipartisan majorities already support amending state laws to allow Alaska voters an option to cure their ballots. But a bill that would have achieved that was stalled by House Republicans in the final hour of the legislative session in May.

Last year’s House Speaker Cathy Tilton, a Wasilla Republican, later said that Republicans opposed the bill because it would have favored Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola.

Peltola ultimately lost to Republican challenger Nick Begich III, who was sworn in as U.S. representative earlier this month. Data from the recent election showed that the rejected ballots didn’t make a significant dent in the U.S. House race. However, there were enough rejected ballots from one East Anchorage district to possibly alter the outcome of a tight House race in which a Republican beat the Democratic incumbent.

House District 18, an East Anchorage district encompassing Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and surrounding neighborhoods, saw the highest number of rejected absentee ballots of the state’s 40 House districts.

It is also the district in which Democratic incumbent Rep. Cliff Groh was narrowly beaten by Republican former lawmaker David Nelson. In the final vote count, Nelson beat Groh by 22 votes.

Data shows that the district saw 72 rejected ballots, including 30 that were rejected for lacking a valid witness signature. Another 13 were rejected because of errors that could have been corrected through a curing process — including incorrect voter identifiers, missing identifiers or missing voter signatures.

It is not clear that the rejected ballots would have flipped the result, since many absentee voters in the district come from JBER, where voters lean Republican. Groh said he supported legislation that would make it easier for votes from his district to be counted, regardless of the outcome.

In Wasilla’s House District 28, Republican Rep.-elect Elexie Moore won after a ranked-choice tabulation by a nine-vote margin in a race that featured multiple Republican candidates. Sixteen ballots in the district were rejected — including three for lacking a witness signature and two for an incorrect voter identifier.

“I think it cuts across party lines,” said Wielechowski. “I just think fundamentally, we should not make it more difficult for people to vote.”