Anchorage candidates would need signatures to get on the city ballot

Anchorage candidates for mayor, School Board and Assembly would have to collect voter signatures to get on the ballot, under an ordinance up for public hearing Tuesday. In Assembly District 1 that would mean 63 signatures. In District 6 it would mean 162.

Those two districts are close to the same size. District 1 has 35,149 registered voters and District 6 has 42,065, about 20 percent apart. The signature requirements are 157 percent apart, because the formula counts ballots cast at the last election rather than people living in the district. District 1 cast 6,287 ballots in April; District 6 cast 16,171.

One of the sponsors represents the district with the lowest bar. Sydney Scout of District 1 and Donald Handeland of District 2 are carrying the ordinance, and both won their seats in that April election, Scout with 3,484 votes and Handeland with 5,815. District 1 recorded the fewest ballots cast of the six districts, which is what puts its threshold at 63.

The requirement itself is a nomination petition signed by qualified voters equal to at least one percent of the ballots cast at the last regular election for the seat being sought, with district candidates needing signers who live in the district. The sponsors say it would screen out candidates with little community support and spare the city the cost of processing them. In the same memorandum they note that "court challenges to these have had mixed results." Write-in candidacy is untouched.

How the citywide seats would work is not settled in the text. Ballots cast at the last regular election could mean the 66,848 cast overall, or the votes recorded in a particular race — 61,449 in School Board Seat C, 60,780 in Seat D. The difference is worth roughly 60 signatures. The sponsors' own example for District 1 Seat L, 56 signatures, counts votes in that race rather than ballots cast.

The filing calendar would move with it. Declarations of candidacy would be due no earlier than 88 days and no later than 74 days before a regular election, where the code now sets 81 and 67. The withdrawal deadline would shift from 63 days to 67. The Assembly takes testimony Tuesday.