(Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
By James Brooks, Alaska Beacon
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order dealing with federal elections, but because the U.S. Constitution reserves many electoral powers for the states, experts across the country and here in Alaska say they’re not certain what effects Trump’s action will have.
“The Division of Elections is reviewing the executive order and will collaborate with the Department of Law on any potential changes to policies or procedures,” said Carol Beecher, director of the Division of Elections, in a written statement.
Multiple attorneys with expertise in Alaska elections law declined comment on the order, citing uncertainty about its applicability.
Trump’s order comes just as the Alaska Legislature is considering proposals to rewrite state elections law. A bill in the House and a similar bill in the Senate would each make a variety of changes, including to the state’s absentee ballot process.
Many states, including Alaska, count some absentee ballots that arrive after Election Day, as long as they were postmarked on or before Election Day.
Trump’s order seeks to change that by stating that all ballots must reach elections officials on or before Election Day.
“I don’t know that he can legally change that just with an executive order,” said Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage and one of several senators leading the push for the Senate bill.
“In fact,” Wielechowski said, “I highly doubt that he can, and I’m not even sure that Congress can, quite frankly, because under the Constitution, the states have very strong abilities to run their own elections.”
Earlier this year, Wielechowski requested a legal opinion asking whether existing caselaw requires Alaska to abide by an Election Day deadline for absentee ballots.
The Trump order also states that voters who register to vote via a national mail voter registration form must present a U.S. Passport, military ID or other document that shows the voter’s citizenship.
Most voters register to vote via state forms, rather than federal forms, so the impact of the new ID requirements isn’t clear. One section of the Trump order says that states may lose federal elections funding if they don’t mirror the new ID requirements in their own states.
Alaska received $1 million in federal elections funding last year, budget records show.
Wielechowski said he has already requested that legislative attorneys perform a detailed analysis of the elections executive order.
“I think the further they encroach, the more questionable what they do becomes,” Wielechowski said of the Trump administration’s actions on elections.
