Alaska has mailed citizenship verification letters to more than 3,000 registered voters after a data exchange between state agencies may have added non-citizens to the voter rolls, state election officials confirmed Friday.
The Alaska Division of Elections discovered the problem while cross-referencing its voter list against records held by the state Division of Motor Vehicles. Director Carol Beecher told state lawmakers the routine audit turned up an unexpected result: “a lot of old data was picked up somehow.”
The 3,000-plus voters now flagged have been moved to an “inactive” status pending confirmation of their citizenship. The letter sent to affected voters states plainly: “We have since received information from the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles that you may not be a citizen.”
Recipients are asked to confirm their status by letter, phone, or email. The division is not requiring documentation.
Beecher said the process typically surfaces around 200 names. Asked why it jumped to over 3,000 this cycle, she offered no clear explanation. “It was still unclear why the list of potential noncitizen voters grew this year,” The Hill reported.
The Alaska DMV separately flagged the initial request as unusual. In a Thursday memo, the agency called the query “nonroutine,” noting that the Elections Division provided a list of roughly 15,200 DMV license and ID applicants and asked for corresponding citizenship data.
Beecher denied that the expanded citizenship review was connected to Alaska’s decision to share detailed voter data with the U.S. Department of Justice. “It has nothing to do with that,” she said during the legislative hearing.
This is not the first controversy involving the Alaska Division of Elections in 2026. The agency earlier attempted to remove a Senate candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. from the ballot in a race that also features incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska). The Alaska Supreme Court reversed that decision and ordered the candidate’s name restored.
