Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom has approved signature gathering for two ballot measures and disqualified a third from advancing to that next phase.
The two measures — if they gather enough petition signatures for a spot on the ballot and then win voter approval — would impose new financial limits on political campaigns and grant an array of rights to workers, including mandatory sick leave, a higher minimum wage and the ability to opt out from employer-mandated political and religious instruction.
The rejected measure would have barred the state from paying for party-specific primary elections, such as a Republican-only or Democrat-only primary, as the state did before voters installed Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system in 2020.
To qualify for next year’s elections, sponsors of the two approved measures must now gather signatures from at least 26,000 Alaskans in at least three-quarters of state House districts before the Legislature convenes in January.
Sponsors of the rejected measure intended that it serve as a backstop to guarantee nonpartisan primary elections in case Alaska’s ranked-choice election system is repealed, but in a legal analysis the state Department of Law said that the measure would have violated Alaska’s constitutional ban on ballot measures that allocate money or resources.
“It would limit the Legislature’s ability to appropriate funds for partisan primaries or similar processes in the future,” the analysis said, “so it makes an appropriation in violation...
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