July 23, 2026

Alaska removed 3,048 residents from active voter list based on erroneous DMV data flagging citizens as possible noncitizens

On July 23, 2026, Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher disclosed to state lawmakers that the state had removed 3,048 people from the active voter roll, downgrading them to inactive status, based on a cross-check with Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles records that contained "old data." The flagging rate — far above the typical 200 names per cycle — reflected an acknowledged data error and affected citizens who had legally registered to vote.

Jurisdiction: Alaska
Location: Juneau, Alaska

Abuses documented

Actors

Alaska Division of Elections
Carol Beecher (Director, Alaska Division of Elections)
Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles

On July 23, 2026, Carol Beecher, director of the Alaska Division of Elections, told state lawmakers that the division had removed 3,048 people from Alaska's active voter list, downgrading them to inactive status on the grounds that they might not be U.S. citizens. The action stemmed from a routine cross-check of voter registration records against Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles data — a process run several times per year under the state's motor-voter program. That program links driver's license applications to voter registration and asks applicants to self-report citizenship; the division then checks for inconsistencies. A typical cycle flags roughly 200 names. This cycle flagged thousands.

Beecher attributed the mass flagging to "old data" provided by the DMV, saying she did not know why so many residents had been identified as possible noncitizens. "We believe that when we did the match, that a lot of old data was picked up somehow. So we're still ferreting through that," she said. Despite acknowledging the data problem, she defended the removals, saying the division had an obligation to act on the DMV's report and that the process was "not disenfranchising" because voters could reactivate their status by contacting the division and confirming their citizenship — without submitting paperwork or documents. Letters were mailed to affected residents beginning the previous month.

Many of those removed appear to have been U.S. citizens, erroneously swept up by the data mismatch. Residents who received letters and do not respond face full purge from the voter roll entirely. The scale of the purge — approximately fifteen times the expected baseline — was acknowledged by state officials as anomalous, though no corrective recall of the removals was announced by the time of Beecher's testimony. Alaska law prohibits non-citizens from voting.

Reporting by the Alaska Beacon and the Anchorage Daily News documented Beecher's testimony before state lawmakers and obtained copies of the letters sent to affected voters.

Updates

2026-08-11 — Over 600 wrongly flagged citizens came forward; Whittier prosecutions, ACLU complaint [3, 4]

A list of 2,809 flagged residents dated Aug. 7, 2026 — 2,502 of them "undeclared" voters, including more registered Republicans (122) than Democrats (100) — was obtained by Alaska Beacon via a public-records request, confirming the DMV data-sharing comparison had moved voters to inactive status under condition code "NC" for noncitizen. More than 600 people have since contacted the Division of Elections claiming they were citizens removed in error, many naturalized after first obtaining a license as noncitizens, which the outdated DMV match did not capture. In a memo, an Alaska Legislature attorney said he could not identify statutory authority for the removals and that they may violate the National Voter Registration Act. The ACLU of Alaska separately warned the state's notice process, including English-only letters, may violate election law. The state has charged 11 Whittier residents with voting without citizenship; those defendants remain on the list.

Why we recorded this

Voter rolls that purge eligible citizens without reliable evidence undermine the basic premise that every qualified citizen's vote counts. We record this because Alaska's Division of Elections removed 3,048 residents from active voter status — more than fifteen times the typical cycle baseline — based on DMV records officials themselves described as "old data" that they could not explain. Downgraded voters must provide additional identity documentation to vote and face full purge if they do not respond. When the government removes eligible voters from the rolls through a data error it cannot account for, and places the burden of correction on the voter, it inverts the relationship between citizen and state that elections are meant to protect.

Sources

Alaska removes thousands from state's active voter list, erroneously flagging some citizens — Alaska Beacon investigative accessed July 25, 2026
Alaska removes thousands from state's active voter list, erroneously flagging some citizens — Anchorage Daily News primary accessed July 25, 2026
Alaska's list of alleged noncitizen voters includes more Republicans than Democrats — Alaska Beacon investigative accessed August 12, 2026
Legislature's attorney says elections officials may have violated Alaska and federal law with voter removals — Anchorage Daily News investigative accessed August 12, 2026