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2023 Op. Alaska Att'y Gen. 1 (2023)

handle is hein.sag/sagak0098 and id is 1 raw text is: Department of Law ML ASKACIVIL DIVTISION A 1031 We st 4hAve ne, Suite 200 Ane ho a AK99501 ain: 9 7.2 .500 a x: 907.276A39 January 19, 2023 The Honorable Nancy Dahlstrom Lieutenant Governor P.O. Box 110015 Juneau, Alaska 99811-0015 Re: 22AKHE Ballot Measure Application Review AGO No. 2023100126 Dear Lieutenant Governor Dahlstrom You asked us to review an initiative application for a proposed bill entitled: This act would get rid of the Open Primary System and Ranked-Choice General Election. In place of that, this act would create a Political Party Primary and General Election Process that is easily understood. The political parties of Alaska will select their candidates through a primary process. Voters would vote for their preferred candidate, and then each one preferred candidate from each registered political party would appear on the general ballot. (22A K H E). We review initiatives to ensure they meet all constitutional and statutory requirements, without considering the merits of any initiative. Because this initiative is a partial reversal of the Ballot Measure 2 initiative (19AKBE) and the Alaska Supreme Court upheld that initiative application, we recommend that you certify this application. It is in the proper form, and both the proposed bill and the application comply with the constitutional and statutory provisions governing initiatives. I. The proposed bill The bill proposed by this initiative has 59 sections. It is a line-by-line repeal of many aspects of Ballot Measure 2, the election reform initiative which passed in 2020 and became effective in 2021. The proposed bill would eliminate open, non-partisan primary elections and ranked-choice general elections and reinstate party primaries. It would reverse all of the changes made by Ballot Measure 2, except for the changes to campaign finance disclosure requirements.