Lawmakers got their first look on Wednesday at a resolution that would register their “serious concern” with the Dunleavy administration’s decision to acquiesce to the Trump Department of Justice’s expansive demands for private voter information.
The relatively polite language belies simmering outrage among legislators over the state’s compliance with what’s widely seen as the Trump administration’s overreaching meddling in the 2026 elections. In addition to handing over confidential voter information, which lawmakers worry could feed into brutal ICE raids and other non-election purposes, state election officials signed a secretive agreement in December that would give the DOJ unprecedented authority to decide who can and cannot vote ahead of the consequential 2026 elections.
Legislators view the moves as a violation of federal and state law, as well as the Alaska Constitution’s strong privacy clause.
House Majority Leader Chuck Kopp, a moderate Anchorage Republican, praised House Joint Resolution 43 at the House Judiciary Committee hearing for “speaking directly to the privacy concerns that I think 90% of our constituents share.”
Of particular concern is that, under the agreement, the state agreed to remove any voters identified by the federal government as ineligible within 45 days.
At a pair of hearings before the House and Senate last week, state election officials stood by the agreements and said they’d do it again despite growing evidence that there is no legal basis for the state to release its confidential voter list. In fact, Alaska is one of the only two states to have both given the federal government confidential voter data and signed such a sweeping agreement.
At the hearings, state officials refused to provide any meaningful insight into the decision-making process behind obeying the federal request, nor did they explain what shifted between initially refusing to provide the full information and ultimately transferring it.
State election officials have tried to downplay the invitation for the DOJ to decide voter eligibility, arguing that existing laws still apply and state officials will ultimately decide who’s eligible — even though that’s not what the agreement says.
To date, election officials said the DOJ hasn’t ordered anyone to be deactivated.
HJR 43 would be a non-binding resolution, essentially expressing the Legislature’s disapproval of the action. It specifically addresses concerns that the information could be used for non-election purposes beyond those stated in the agreement, particularly regarding ICE enforcement and other federal law enforcement actions. It also asks the Division of Elections to obtain better answers from the federal government regarding the use, security, sharing, and deletion of Alaskans’ private voter data, and inform the Legislature on any progress.
Finally, it also says the Legislature is going to continue monitoring the “implementation of any federal voter registration requirements to ensure that no eligible resident is disenfranchised by citizenship document barriers,” a reference to the GOP’s SAVE America Act that would place strict registration and identification requirements to vote in federal elections.
Trump-friendly Republicans, like at the previous hearings on the data sharing, again downplayed the seriousness of the issue, pointing out that the federal government already has everyone’s Social Security numbers.
Wednesday’s hearing was the bill’s initial hearing, and it is expected to be heard again next week.
Privacy advocates have also urged lawmakers to bring a lawsuit against the Dunleavy administration, though everyone concedes that the information is already out the door and in the DOJ’s hands.