Urge Alaska to Resist Federal Overreach in Election Administration

I am writing to express serious concern that Alaska signed a confidential memorandum of understanding with the Trump administration's Justice Department and provided our complete voter registration file to the federal government. This agreement represents an unprecedented federal intrusion into Alaska's constitutional authority to administer our own elections. The memorandum allows the DOJ to analyze Alaska's voter file and then instruct our state to remove specific voters within 45 days. This 45-day removal requirement appears to violate the National Voter Registration Act, which mandates a specific process for removing voters who have moved. The NVRA requires sending notices and waiting two federal election cycles if voters don't respond, and it prohibits systematic voter removals during a 90-day quiet period before federal elections. The data security provisions in this agreement are alarmingly inadequate. Our voter files contain full names, addresses, dates of birth, driver's license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers for Alaska's registered voters. Yet the agreement does not require data encryption, includes no audit log analysis requirements, and allows this sensitive information to be shared with contractors who are not bound by the agreement's already minimal safeguards. In January, a DOGE employee at the Social Security Administration signed a similar agreement with an advocacy group whose stated aim was to overturn election results in certain states, demonstrating how this administration shares sensitive voter data with outside actors. The agreement provides no information about how the DOJ will analyze voter rolls, what criteria will flag Alaskans for removal, or whether Alaska will even be given reasons for demanded removals. I call upon Alaska's government to immediately withdraw from this agreement and refuse further cooperation with these federal demands. Election administration has always been a state responsibility, and Alaska must protect both our constitutional authority and the sensitive personal information of our voters. Our state should join the more than 20 states that have refused to comply with these overreaching federal demands.