Committee hears resolution urging accounting for state voter data handed to DOJ

Sean Mills, House majority staff and counsel, presented House Joint Resolution 43 to the Alaska House Judiciary Committee on March 11, saying the measure affirms the legislature’s commitment to voter privacy and urges action to protect Alaskans after the federal government requested the state's full voter registration list.

The resolution recounts that in December 2025 the state transmitted a complete voter-registration list to the U.S. Department of Justice under a memorandum of understanding and expresses concern that confidential fields protected by Alaska law may have been disclosed. Mills cited Alaska Constitution Article I, Section 22 and Alaska statute 15.07.195 in reciting the resolution’s findings and asked the committee to consider the resolution’s recital.

Mills said the resolution calls on the Division of Elections to request, in writing, from the Department of Justice a detailed accounting of how state voter data is being stored and for how long; who has access and whether any other federal agencies have access; what the data has been or will be used for; whether state voter data has been cross-referenced with non-election databases; what safeguards are in place to prevent unauthorized access or misuse; and when the data will be destroyed. He read the resolution’s recital in full and noted that three federal district courts in California, Oregon and Michigan have rejected the Justice Department’s interpretation in similar cases.

Representative Vance questioned the numeric details cited in the resolution, telling the committee that “that number is actually 608,400” records based on the list he reviewed and asking staff to clarify the discrepancy with the ~570,000 figure in the recital. Vance also asked the committee to seek information from Department of Administration about how Real ID and other processes have addressed Alaska Native elders who may lack modern birth records.

Representative Costello asked what fields are available on the publicly purchasable list and where highly sensitive fields such as Social Security numbers and driver’s-license numbers are held and protected; the chair and staff said they will provide the committee a handout showing what was publicly available for $20 versus the complete December transmission, which the committee said included driver-license numbers and residential addresses when confidentiality had been requested.

The committee agreed to pursue follow-up testimony from the Department of Administration and to contact the Social Security Administration and Transportation Security Administration if needed. The committee set HJR 43 aside for additional information and did not set an amendment deadline until those follow-ups occur. Chair Grachea indicated that if the Division of Elections receives a response from the DOJ, the legislature urges that response be transmitted to the presiding officers of each house within 30 days.

Next steps: HJR 43 was set aside pending Department of Administration follow-up; the committee intends to revisit the resolution and will include public comment when it is taken up again.