This story was originally published in the Alaska Beacon.
When Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump took the stage Sept. 10 for his televised debate against Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, he repeated a well-trodden falsehood, claiming that noncitizens are voting in large numbers.
Nationally, there is no evidence that noncitizens are voting in significant numbers.
Here in Alaska, state court records since 2011 show only one confirmed instance of noncitizen voting, from a woman born in American Samoa. An official with Alaska’s U.S. Attorney’s office said prosecutors there don’t know of any recent cases in federal courts.
Despite that, some Alaska Republicans have used unfounded claims about noncitizen voting to attack the state’s two automatic voter registration programs.
Nationally, experts warn that noncitizen voting claims are being used to sow doubt about the results of the upcoming election and are encouraging the passage of laws that could prevent legal Americans from voting.
Noncitizen voting is illegal at both the state and federal levels, and some Republican-led states have passed laws that require voters to show proof of citizenship when they register to vote, adding a layer of checks.
This year, Idaho is scheduled to vote on a constitutional amendment that requires voters to prove their citizenship.
In Arizona, if a voter fails to provide proof of citizenship, they’re not able to vote in local or state elections but can still vote in federal elections. A 2023 analysis conducted by Votebeat, a nonpartisan group, found those federal-only voters were concentrated in Democratic-leaning areas, such as college campuses.
The Arizona law has been subject to repeated court challenges, and in August, Alaska attorney general Treg Taylor joined other Republican attorneys general in signing a friend-of-the-court brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the Arizona law.
The U.S. Supreme Court subsequently ruled partially in favor of those who sought to maintain the Arizona law.
But soon afterward, Arizona DMV officials found that more than 200,000 registered voters might be disqualified from voting because the computer system they use had failed to list those voters as having shown proof of citizenship.
The largest group of affected voters is Republican, and the state Republican Party — which has been in favor of the citizenship law — joined Democrats and independents in asking the state Supreme Court to suspend it for those voters.
The court ruled Sept. 20 that those voters can still use a full ballot, effectively nullifying the law until after this year’s election.
Alaska doesn’t have a citizenship-voting law like Arizona’s, but the state Department of Motor Vehicles and the Division of Elections do check potential voters’ citizenship status, officials at each agency said by email.
In Alaska, people who get a state driver’s license are asked if they want to register as an Alaska voter.
If the answer is yes, they have to confirm that they’re a citizen.
Paula Vrana is commissioner of the Department of Administration, which oversees the state Division of Motor Vehicles. She explained the process and referred to Alaska statutes.
“If the individual affirms they are a citizen and wish to register to vote, they are then prompted to answer additional voter registration questions,” she said by email. “These questions have been specifically designated by the Division of Elections to collect all necessary information for voter eligibility verification. Per the authority established by AS 15.07.055 and AS 28.05.045, the DMV transfers to Elections a compilation of each day’s voter registration request data.”
“Elections then conducts a thorough review of each applicant’s details. This review process ensures the data provided by the constituent meets the applicable criteria for voter registration. After this evaluation, Elections takes the necessary steps to either approve (or deny) the applicant’s voter registration or follow up if additional information is needed.”
States are required by federal law to operate “motor voter” programs that allow people to register when they sign up for a driver’s license.
Alaska also has a second automatic program, which permits people to register or update their registration when they sign up for the Permanent Fund dividend.
Aimee Bushnell, a spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Revenue, said that if someone registers through that program and indicates they’re a citizen, their information is sent to the Division of Elections.
“If they marked some other status (lawful permanent resident, asylee, refugee), the applicant’s information is NOT transferred to the Division of Elections,” she said by email.
It isn’t clear whether Alaska has audited its voter rolls with an eye toward citizenship. In Oregon, an audit found almost 1,300 noncitizens registered to vote among that state’s 3 million registered voters.
Those registrations were due to incorrect data entry in Oregon’s motor-voter program. Nine of those noncitizens were flagged as having voted in state elections, but that figure has since been reduced to seven after further review and could be reduced further.
Carol Beecher, director of the Alaska Division of Elections, said that in Alaska, “When someone marks that they are a citizen, 18 or older on election day, and a resident, they do so on penalty of perjury. If there are non-citizens who are registered, it is because they have said they are citizens.”
The 1993 National Voter Registration Act sets the rules for most voter registration programs.
“Under the NRVA the division is not allowed to require certification beyond the statement they provide,” she said by email. “If it happens that a person inadvertently marks that they are a citizen and then finds out they are registered to vote, they need to contact the division to have their name removed from the registration list. If we hear from a different source that a voter may not actually be a citizen, we turn that over to the Department of Law.”
Alaska court records show only one prosecution for noncitizen voting since 2011, a case filed in 2023 that’s still unresolved.
Tupe Smith was born in American Samoa, an island territory in the South Pacific. Its residents are U.S. nationals — having some of the same legal rights as other Americans — but aren’t citizens.
Smith moved to Alaska in 2017, her PFD records show, and lived in Whittier. In 2023, she decided to run for the local school board, in a state-administered election.
She ran uncontested and won a seat on the board, but her victory brought attention from the Division of Elections — which investigated her status — and state prosecutors, who filed charges against her.
Smith is being represented by a public defender, who declined comment on the case. The Alaska Department of Law similarly declined comment.
Under Alaska law, someone has to deliberately lie about their citizenship in order to be prosecuted for voting as a noncitizen, and in a dismissal motion filed to the court, Smith’s attorney said her actions were due to simple confusion.
Smith believed that as a U.S. national, she could vote in lower-level elections but not for president, according to the filing. Frequently, governmental forms simply ask whether the signer is a citizen, Smith said in court documents, adding that there frequently isn’t space to indicate that the signer is a national.
According to the court filing, when she registered as a candidate, she verbally told the person handling her registration that she is an American national, and she expected to be identified as such.
State prosecutors tried to charge Smith with multiple counts of illegal voting, but a grand jury found no probable cause to believe that Smith committed several of the state-alleged crimes.
The dismissal motion on the remaining charges remains pending in state court.
James Brooks is a longtime Alaska reporter, having previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. A graduate of Virginia Tech, he is married to Caitlyn Ellis, owns a house in Juneau and has a small sled dog named Barley.
