James Baisden, District 30 Candidate for the Alaska House of Representatives is currently listed on the general election ballots as a petition nominee. His party registration, Republican, is not listed, leaving voters looking at a ballot to be unaware of his registration.
Baisden spoke to KSRM News about his request to Lieutenant Governor Kevin Meyer for District 30 ballots to be reprinted, referring to a decision made by the Alaska Division of Elections to reprint ballots for House Districts 11, 12, 16, and 38 because of a candidate’s Libertarian Party affiliation not being listed next to his “petition nominee” status: “After seeing the news, and what happened legally there, I think there were four different candidates that were able to change how they were listed with their affiliation, but on the ballot, I’m going to be listed as a ‘petition candidate.’ I’m a registered Republican, and I’ve asked Lieutenant Governor, after what I saw yesterday, to change my ballot – they should take the District 30 ballot and I should be listed as ‘Republican petition nominee’ – is how I should be listed. To be fair the voters, to let voters know I’m a registered Republican. It’s difficult for people to understand when they just see ‘petition nominee.'”
Last week, U.S. House Candidate Alyse Galvin filed a complaint for a similar reason. She is registered nonpartisan, but she won Alaska’s Democratic primary for the House seat. That led the Division of Elections to list her as the Democratic nominee. Candidates who won primaries are listed as “Democratic” or “Republican” nominee, but candidates who did not run in a primary will be listed as “petition candidate.” For Baisden, this means his status as a Republican will not be visible to voters on the November ballot.
Baisden states the reason he ran as a petition candidate was to give voters more choices, but that he remains committed to being a Republican: “A lot of people in this state would run as a petition candidate trying to hide their party. Mine was just the opposite. I’m not trying to hide my party, I just chose a different path, absolutely to give people more choices.”
