Alaska’s midterm election season is underway. Residents who lost the right to vote with a felony conviction may have their right restored once they are unconditionally discharged from the Alaska Department of Corrections’ supervision.
Restoration of voting rights after a felony conviction varies by state. Alaska is one of more than a dozen states that requires residents to complete their prison sentence and be unconditionally discharged from custody before their right to vote is restored.
That means Alaskans can vote again once they are no longer under DOC supervision, which includes halfway houses, sentenced electronic monitoring, probation or parole.
The Department of Corrections is required to issue a letter as proof of unconditional discharge, which residents must provide to the Alaska Division of Elections to re-register to vote if they otherwise meet eligibility requirements.
The deadline to register to vote is July 19 for Alaska’s primary elections, September 6 for local elections and October 4 for the midterm elections in November.
Residents can check their voter registration at myvoterportal.alaska.gov.
Alaskans lose the right to vote after a state or federal felony conviction involving crimes of moral turpitude, a list which includes murder, assault, drug-related felonies and others. That means they are ineligible to vote in all local, state and federal elections while in prison and under DOC supervision.
If convicted of a misdemeanor or a felony not involving a crime of moral turpitude, Alaskans are eligible to register and vote in elections.
The roughly 40% of Alaska’s incarcerated population who is pre-trial — even under felony charges — are also eligible to vote. That includes incarcerated Alaskans who are awaiting trial, plea agreements or sentencing.
This year, the deadline for eligible voters to apply for absentee by-mail voting is August 8 for the primary, and by October 24 for the general election.
An official with the Department of Corrections said probation officers at all correctional facilities will assist any inmate that requests help with voting, including registration, updating address information and applying for or casting an absentee ballot.
“Each facility has posted in all common areas an instructional notice from the Division of Elections and each facility has paper copies of the absentee ballot application,” said Betsy Holley, a public information officer for the department, by email on Wednesday.
Under Alaska statute, most inmate mail is scanned and copied before it is provided to inmates. Ballots are considered “privileged mail” and subject to monitoring under specific criteria, Holley said. Inmates fill out their ballots and cast their vote like any other eligible voter.
“Mailroom staff may not read or search outgoing privileged mail. Mailroom staff will verify, in the prisoner’s presence, that the intended recipient of the mail is the same person as the privileged addressee,” Holley said.
Holley said the numbers of Alaskans unconditionally discharged from DOC custody and eligible to vote each year was not immediately available.
The ACLU of Alaska has updated voter guidance and resources for formerly and currently incarcerated Alaskans. The organization, along with state nonprofit Partners for Progress, is hosting voter restoration information sessions this election season.
“Incarceration does not automatically disqualify Alaskans from voting,” said Meghan Barker, ACLU of Alaska communications director, by email on Tuesday. “It’s critical that people who have interacted with the criminal legal system know their rights and know how to either request an absentee ballot while incarcerated or, if eligible, take the steps to restore their voting rights after they’ve been incarcerated.”
Barker said that as of May there are nearly 1,750 Alaskans that are incarcerated and awaiting trial or sentencing that may be eligible to vote. She noted that Alaska Native people make up a disproportionate number of those incarcerated statewide. While Alaska Native people are less than 20% of the state’s population, they made up 40% of the prison population last year.
“As we continue to look at ways to combat the disenfranchisement of Alaska Native people, we must also consider the demographics of Alaska’s prisons and the people who are eligible to vote, even if they are incarcerated far from their home communities or districts where they would vote,” she said.
