If Ballot Measure 1 passes, Alaskans will be automatically registered to vote when they apply for their Permanent Fund Dividend. But what does it mean for the PFD? Will it cost the state money? KYUK spoke with Forrest Dunbar, Anchorage Assemblyman and Ballot Measure 1 co-sponsor, about the proposed legislation.
Dunbar: Ballot Measure 1 is an effort to change the law so that when you sign up for your PFD, you will be automatically registered to vote if you're a qualified Alaskan who’s at least 18 years old.
KYUK: Will it change the way people have to apply for the PFD?
Dunbar: No. It will absolutely not change the way you apply for your PFD, or qualifying for the PFD. So that’s a misconception that I really hope people will understand. This doesn’t impact your PFD eligibility at all, and if you want to opt out from being registered to vote, you can easily do that too, and this in no way impacts your eligibility for the PFD at all. It’s important to know that this does not replace the old system. If you prefer to register to vote using paper, that’s totally fine. The old system will not go away, we just think less people will use it because they’ll prefer this system. It's a lot easier.
KYUK: Right now the state budget is a little bit tricky, so will it cost the state anything?
Dunbar: So, another misconception is that this will be expensive. The lieutenant governor, and the Department of Elections, and their [voter count] pamphlet said it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, they overestimated the cost and they didn’t include the cost savings from not processing thousands, actually hundreds of thousands of dollars of paper ballots, and tens of thousands of question ballots for people voting in the wrong district they're not registered in. It will allow us to shift more from paper registration forms to the electronic forms of the PFD which are also secure, because the permanent fund actually does fraud protection because there’s real money involved. So if this passes, Alaska will have the most universal, most accurate, most secure system in the history of the country, which I know sounds amazing, but the truth is no other part of the country has a tool like the PFD, and I really hope we can keep that tool and use it in this way. Make it do double duty for the people.
KYUK: Does this mean there will be more questions on the application?
Dunbar: It won’t show up on the PFD. On the application it might add one or two more questions, but it probably wouldn’t. The great thing about the PFD application is that it already collects a ton of information and, people don’t realize this, but government agencies can already get all the information from the PFD. For example, that’s how we do jury selection.
KYUK: Okay, Mr. Dunbar, thank you for joining us here today and telling us about Ballot Measure 1.
Dunbar: Okay, great. Thank you so much Charles; greatly appreciate it.
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