Letter: Ensuring equal ballot access for all Alaskans

By Jessie Lavoie & YWCA Alaska Advocacy Committee

We read with dismay Alaska House Speaker Cathy Tilton’s recent comments indicating that she and her party killed a voting rights bill in the previous legislative session on the grounds that it would be bad for them politically, since it would reduce the rejection rate of rural ballots, specifically from voters who are overwhelmingly Alaska Natives. Speaker Tilton finds herself in historically dubious company in openly admitting to racially discriminatory legislative actions as they relate to voting. In addition to seven states of the former Confederacy, Alaska was subject to the preclearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 due to discrimination against Indigenous voters. A 1915 territorial voting act required “Native Indians” to take a test and to undertake “a total abandonment of any tribal customs or relationship” in order to be granted the right to vote. From 1924 until 1970, Alaska employed an English literacy test that was primarily used to disqualify Alaska Native people from voting.

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Featured image: Election officials scanned and counted ballots from the special primary election for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat at the State Division of Elections Region II Office in Anchorage on Wednesday, June, 15, 2022. (Bill Roth / ADN)