The Alaska State Senate passed a bill relating to the definition of ‘political party’. Committee substitute for Senate Bill 161 amends state statute to define ‘political party’ as an organized group of voters that represents a political program and has at least 5,000 registered voters in the state.
Bill sponsor Sen. Bill Wielechowski:
“This bill was requested by a constituent of mine who’s active in the libertarian party. It changes the way the state recognizes political parties. Under current laws, you can see you have to have registered voters equal to 3% of the number of votes cast for Governor in the last general election, but if there’s not a governor’s race, then it’s 3% of the last U.S. Senator election, but if there’s no U.S. Senator, then it’s 3% of the last total number of voters in the House of Representatives election. As you can see, the number varies pretty significantly and it varies depending on whether or not it’s a presidential year, at which time the numbers would be higher and then they drop down typically in the midterm elections, but if it’s a very active election and there’s a lot of interest, as we saw in 2020, the numbers can spike up fairly dramatically. In fact, from 2018 – 2020, the number spiked to 27%.”
Sen. Wielechowski adds:
“Since Ballot Measure 2 eliminated party primaries, the only offices for which recognized political parties will get automatic ballot access are president and vice president. Parties with more than 5,000 registered voters have never had problems achieving ballot access by petition and this, it’s expected, this bill will actually save the state a little bit of money from having the division of election having to take the time and expense to process petitions.”
SB 161 passed on a 14-0 vote and has been transmitted to the House for consideration.
Transcribed audio courtesy of KTOO 360TV.
