Opinion ID: 1169818
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Rejection of the Votes of Prior District 21 Residents

Text: Voters in state and local elections must be residents of the election district in which they vote. Alaska Const. art. V, § 1; [12] AS 15.05.010(4). [13] Despite these constitutional and statutory requirements that a voter reside in the election district in which he or she seeks to vote for thirty days immediately or just preceding the election, id., Cissna argues that the votes of non-residents of District 21, Adams, Nothstine, and Huling, should be counted in the District 21 primary election. In support of this argument, Cissna relies on AS 15.20.015 and AS 15.05.020(10). Alaska Statute 15.05.020 sets forth the procedures for determining the residence of a voter. It provides in part: (1) A person may not be considered to have gained a residence solely by reason of presence nor may a person lose it solely by reason of absence ... (2) The residence of a person is that place in which the person's habitation is fixed, and to which, whenever absent, the person has the intention to return.... (3) A change of residence is made only by the act of removal joined with the intent to remain in another place. There can only be one residence. .... (5) A person does not gain residence in any place to which the person comes without the present intention to establish a permanent dwelling at that place. .... (8) The term of residence is computed by including the day on which the person's residence begins and excluding the day of election. .... (10) The address of a voter as it appears on an official voter registration card is presumptive evidence of the person's voting residence. This presumption is negated only by the voter notifying the director in writing of a change of voting residence. Cissna argues that AS 15.05.020(10) requires that when a voter has not registered before voting, the address where he or she is registered to vote constitutes legal residency for voting purposes. Thus despite moving from District 21 months before the primary election, Adams, Nothstine, and Huling were entitled to vote as residents of District 21 because they had not yet filled out a voter registration card with a change of address to the new location where each lived. In support of this claim, Cissna relies on a 1982 Attorney General's Opinion which concludes that once a voter has registered in one district, the only evidence of intent to establish a new residence is reregistration. 1982 Formal Op. Att'y Gen. 7. As a preliminary matter, we are not bound to follow positions stated in an Attorney General's Opinion. While opinions of the attorney general are entitled to some deference, they are not controlling on matters of statutory interpretation. Carney v. State Bd. of Fisheries of Alaska, 785 P.2d 544, 548 (Alaska 1990). Alaska Statute 15.20.015 allows certain persons to vote in the district where they previously resided. It provides: A person who meets all voter qualifications except that listed in AS 15.05.010(4) is qualified to vote by absentee ballot in the election district in which the person formerly resided if the person lived in that election district for at least 30 days immediately before changing residence. Cissna reads this language to allow any person who moves from a residence where that person lived for at least thirty days to vote as though he or she still resided in that district, irrespective of when that person moved. She supports this claim with the same Attorney General's Opinion, which concludes that a non-resident may vote in the district where he or she was previously registered, when that person either has reregistered within thirty days of the election, or has residency or domicile in a new district, but is properly registered in his or her old district. [14] 1982 Formal Op. Att'y Gen. 7. Petitioner's interpretation of both statutes would permit a person to vote at a prior residence so long as that person had never reregistered to vote by signing a voting registration card listing a new residence. By this reasoning, it would not matter when the individual moved. Taken to its logical extreme, Cissna's interpretation allows someone who lived in a district for two months, but moved from that district to a permanent residence in another district twenty years ago, to vote in the election district in which he or she resided two decades earlier. Such an interpretation contradicts Article V, section 1 of the Alaska Constitution and would render meaningless the residency requirements set forth in AS 15.05.010. Alaska Statutes 15.05.010 and 15.20.015 should be read in conjunction. Together, they protect the voter who has recently moved away from one district but has not resided in a new district for thirty days and cannot satisfy Alaska constitutional voting requirements under Article V, section 1. Under AS 15.20.015, that person can vote in the district in which he or she resided immediately prior to moving. Without such a provision, the voter would be denied his or her right to vote. However, a non-resident can vote only in the case where the requirement of a thirty day residency in the new district is not met. When that residency window is met, the voter should reregister in his or her new district. If the voter fails to do so, he or she risks having any ballot cast in the old district partially rejected as to the local district vote. As a practical matter, certain persons who move to a new district, but do not reregister or notify the election officials in writing of a change in residency, may have their votes counted in the district of their prior residency simply because election officials do not know that their residency has changed. In the interest of administrative efficiency, AS 15.05.020(10) allows the election official, in the absence of any written notification of change in residency, to presume that a voter still is a legal resident of the district in which he or she is registered. The statute is limited, however, to the circumstance where the officials have no notification of a move to another district. Attorney General's Opinion No. 7 accounts for this limited circumstance. Any broader reading would eviscerate the voter qualification requirements set forth in Article V, section 1 and AS 15.05.010. Thus, when election officials have written notice of a change in residency, this notice suffices to rebut the presumption of voter residency at the district where that voter previously registered. In Fischer this court considered a registration issue similar to that raised by Cissna. Thirteen voters submitted absentee ballots for a District H candidate but listed on the absentee ballot envelope a voting residence outside the district in which they voted. Fischer, 741 P.2d at 222. Alaska Statute 15.20.030 requires that absentee ballots be returned in an envelope, with the voter's certificate swearing under oath that the voter is a qualified voter in all respects. The ballot envelope in Fischer included a space for the absentee voter to fill in his or her permanent residence. Id. This court concluded that the residency form on the envelope satisfied the rebuttal requirement under AS 15.05.020(10) of an affidavit on a form prepared by the director setting out the new voting residence, and because the residency listed by the voters was outside the district in which they voted, the votes were to be excluded. Id. Similarly, in the present case Adams and Nothstine filled out an oath on the back of the ballot envelope, claiming residency outside the district in which they voted. Following the reasoning in Fischer, the Director correctly found both to be registered in a district other than District 21. Unlike Adams and Nothstine, Huling stated by affidavit on her absentee ballot that she resided in District 21. However, that day she reregistered at another address, which is in District 22. The registration application is a voter certification submitted to the Division of Elections; the application carries the warning that any person providing false information on the voter certification may be convicted of a misdemeanor. This certification was received before the votes were counted and recounted, and is substantively identical to the certification of residency on the back of the ballot. As it serves the same function as the certification of residency on the back of the ballot, the registration form rebuts the presumption that Huling legally resides in District 21, and establishes her legal residency in District 22. The next consideration is whether, despite being residents of another district, the votes of Adams, Nothstine, and Huling should be counted. Alaska Statute 15.20.211 sets forth the instances where cross-district voting is permitted. Alaska Statute 15.20.211 provides in part: (a) If a qualified voter of the state votes a ballot for an election district other than the election district in which the voter is registered, the votes cast for statewide candidates and for statewide ballot propositions and statewide questions shall be counted. If the qualified voter voted for a candidate for the state senate from the senate district in which the voter is a resident, the vote shall be counted. The votes cast for candidates or ballot propositions or questions not appearing on the ballot of the district in which the voter is a resident may not be counted. The declarations on the back of the ballot envelope establish that Adams and Nothstine rebutted the presumption of their residency in District 21, and established their residency in another voting district. By reregistering to vote at her new address, Huling also established her residency outside District 21. Therefore, the votes of non-residents, who certified in writing to election officials that they no longer resided in District 21, were properly rejected as to the primary election for State Representative for Election District 21.