The House State Affairs Committee on Feb. 13, 2025 adopted a committee substitute to House Bill 21 that would permit 16-year-olds to preregister to vote and require the Division of Elections to confirm address information before completing registration at 18.

Under the committee substitute summary read into the record by committee staff, the Division of Elections would mail a notice to a preregistered voter 90 days before that person's 18th birthday requesting address confirmation. If the mailed card is returned indicating the address, the summary states, the Division would register that person to vote and send a voter registration card.

Director Carol Beecher of the Alaska Division of Elections told the committee that preregistration uses the voter-registration form and data supplied by the registrant; the information is maintained confidentially in the voter-registration system until the registrant becomes eligible at 18. "When the individual preregisters, they use the voter registration form, which has the information designation on the voter registration system," Beecher said, and the division would mail the notice 90 days prior to the eighteenth birthday to confirm residency.

Committee members pressed for detail. Representative Vance asked at what point the division would confirm that a preregistered minor remains eligible prior to sending a voter card; Beecher said the division would confirm using the information supplied at preregistration and the 90-day mailed notice. Representative McCabe asked for counts of current 17-year-old preregistrants; Beecher said the number was not on hand but believed it was small and offered to provide numbers to the committee.

Public testimony included youth advocates and opponents. Ron Anderson, a high-school senior and member of Anchorage Youth Development, urged the committee to approve preregistration, citing lower turnout among 18-to-29-year-olds and research showing preregistration modestly increases youth turnout. Opponents, including Charlie Franz of Homer, said the change would add workload to the Division of Elections and risk complicating voter-roll maintenance.

Representative Himchute made the motion to adopt the committee substitute; after procedural discussion the committee adopted the substitute. Chair Kerrick set an amendment deadline of Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025 at 5 p.m., and the committee set the bill aside for a future hearing.

Why it matters: The substitute keeps preregistration nonbinding until a resident confirms address information shortly before turning 18, while proponents say it can encourage civic engagement among young people. Questions in the hearing focused on operational workload for the Division of Elections and how preregistration interacts with Alaska’s existing automatic-registration practices tied to the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD).

What remains open: The Division of Elections will provide additional statistics on current preregistrants, and committee amendments were due Feb. 19. The proposed fiscal and operational impacts will be available after staff updates the fiscal note.