Alaska officials ask voters to verify citizenship after data error

News Alaska officials ask voters to verify citizenship after data error Comments: by Mira Bhakta - 07/24/26 1:51 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Mira Bhakta - 07/24/26 1:51 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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Alaska sent over 3,000 letters to voters in the state asking them to verify their citizenship, ahead of the Aug. 18 primary, after a data mix up between state agencies possibly added non-citizens to the voter rolls.

Alaska Division of Elections director Carol Beecher said during a hearing with state lawmakers that while the division was conducting voter roll maintenance comparing their list with information held by the state Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) “a lot of old data was picked up somehow.”

In the meantime, Beecher said, these voters have been moved to the division’s “inactive” list over the concerns about citizenship.

The letter sent to voters read, “You are a registered voter who indicated you were a citizen of the United States on your initial voter registration application.”

“We have since received information from the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles that you may not be a citizen,” it continued.

The Alaska letter then asks recipients to confirm their citizenship status via letter, phone or email, and Beecher said the division is not requiring paperwork or documentation, the Associated Press reported.

The process usually yields about 200 names for further review, Beecher said. She continued that it was still unclear why the list of potential noncitizens voters grew this year.

This is not the first time the Alaska Division of Elections has come under scrutiny this election cycle. The agency controversially tried to remove a candidate with the same name as Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) running in the same election from the ballot.

Daniel J. Sullivan Jr appealed an election official’s decision and the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in his favor, affirming a lower court decision that he was allowed to remain on the ballot for the state’s primary in August.

Beecher defended both decisions by the Alaska Division of Elections in the hearing. She was questioned by State Rep. Ashley Carrick (D-Alaska) on whether the letters correlated with Alaska’s choice to share in-depth voter data with the U.S. Department of Justice.

“It has nothing to do with that,” she said.

The Alaska DMV in a memo Thursday called the request by the Elections Division “nonroutine,” adding that it was provided “with a list of approximately 15,200 DMV license and identification applicants and requested that DMV provide citizenship information for these records.”

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