The Alaska House of Representatives passed legislation sponsored by Rep. Matt Claman (Anchorage) that modernizes Alaska’s marriage statutes. House Bill 62 modifies the marriage witness requirement and will allow Alaska to better compete with popular destination wedding states such as Hawaii and Florida.
Rep. Claman said that this bill is about Alaska being ready and open for business:
“I know some of the folks have asked questions about how much is there really the out of state wedding industry and we got from the Department of Vital Statistics that kind of on an average year there’s around between 400 and 550 weddings that involve two non-residents in Alaska, which comprises roughly 10% of the total weddings that take place in Alaska. This has actually been, up until the pandemic, it was a growing industry already. What was happening was folks would go to these destination, sometimes in helicopter, sometimes on hikes, to some of the beauty of Alaska and they’d be required to round up somebody to come to their wedding who they never knew who knew nothing about it so they can witness the ceremony and folks were saying this is just actually not really serving the essential purposes that the state has in being involved in marriage.”
Claman said that there’s no evidence that the current two witness requirement is being abused:
“And to my knowledge, there have been no challenges in Alaska ever in which the question about did somebody witness a marriage was actually necessary. Historically, wedding witnesses were an important issue back prior to the 18th century when most of the marriages was done by the church and it comes from England back the two-witness requirement, but we’re kind of past that day. This bill, again, is a real support for our tourism industry and support for folks that actually have real businesses connected supporting folks who are getting married including those out of state and in state.”
During the amendment process in the House, the legislature added language to the bill that raises the legal minimum age to marry in Alaska from 14 to 16. HB 62 passed the House on a 27-13 vote, and now moves to the Senate for consideration.
Transcribed audio courtesy of KTOO 360TV.