Speaker Cathy Tilton’s remarks are shameful and the people of Alaska, of all races, deserve better from those elected to serve us.
Election officials scanned and counted ballots from the special primary election for Alaska's lone U.S. House seat at the State Division of Elections Region II Office in Anchorage on Wednesday, June, 15, 2022.
At YWCA Alaska, we are on a mission to eliminate racism, empower women and promote peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. We read with dismay Alaska House Speaker Cathy Tilton’s recent comments indicating that she and her party killed a voting rights bill in the previous legislative session on the grounds that it would be bad for them politically, since it would reduce the rejection rate of rural ballots, specifically from voters who are overwhelmingly Alaska Natives.
Speaker Tilton now takes the torch from the racists of the past who used literacy to determine who was American enough to vote and instead uses witness signatures and other administrative burdens to accomplish the same goal, which is to disenfranchise minority voters. It is shameful and the people of Alaska, of all races, deserve better from those elected to serve us.
We call for the Legislature to take up the previously considered voting rights legislation at the commencement of the upcoming session and to ensure the provisions which ensure Alaska Natives’ ballots are not improperly rejected based on technicalities such as lack of witness signature are included. We also call on Director Carol Beecher of the Division of Elections to ensure all precincts are open and properly operating in every community for every election.
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