Alaska sends 3,000 letters asking voters to verify their citizenship

Alaska has sent more than 3,000 letters to residents asking them to verify their citizenship ahead of this year's elections

JUNEAU, Alaska -- The state has sent more than 3,000 letters to Alaska voters asking them to verify their citizenship ahead of the Aug. 18 primary, a number a top state elections official said is unusually high.

The letters have raised concerns among some state lawmakers, including one who said some constituents who received them are U.S. citizens.

Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher told state lawmakers during a hearing this week that it appears “a lot of old data was picked up somehow" when the division conducted voter roll maintenance that compares its list with information held by the Division of Motor Vehicles. The process usually yields about 200 names for further review, she said.

Beecher estimated during Wednesday's hearing that the number of letters sent was around 3,500, but a Division of Elections spokesperson, Steve Kirch, on Thursday said the total was 3,048.

The revelation comes at a time of heightened sensitivity surrounding claims of noncitizen voting. Research and prosecutions have shown it to be extremely rare, but President Donald Trump and his allies have raised alarms since the presidential election cycle two years ago that noncitizen voting is widespread.

The president also has been trying to push voting changes through Congress that would require people to provide documents proving their citizenship to register to vote and a now-halted executive order that sought to create a federal list of verified voters, even though voter rolls are maintained by the states.

The Alaska letter asks recipients to affirm their citizenship status via letter, phone or email, and Beecher said the division is not requiring paperwork or documentation. Those who receive the letter are moved to a list of “inactive” voters. If the division doesn't hear back from the recipient, they still would be able to cast a special kind of ballot that also requires voters to attest to their qualifications to vote, she said.

“It is not disenfranchising the individual from being able to vote, but it’s a measure the division has to take to make sure that we only have citizens voting,” she said.

People who respond to the letter to say they are citizens will be moved back to the active list, Kirch said.

State Rep. Andrew Gray, a Democrat, said the only people who had contacted his office about the letters were people who are citizens. Another Democrat, state Rep. Ashley Carrick, asked if the letters were related to Alaska's dec