Two Assembly members propose requiring voter signatures for Anchorage candidates to get on the ballot

Two Anchorage Assembly members are proposing that candidates for mayor, Assembly and School Board collect voter signatures before their names can be printed on the ballot. Their ordinance is set for introduction on Tuesday, Oct. 6, with a public hearing scheduled for Nov. 4, and would need the Assembly's approval to take effect. Candidates for city office don't currently need signatures to get on the ballot.

Assembly Members Donald Handeland and Jared Goecker, who both represent Chugiak-Eagle River, sponsor the ordinance, AO 2026-129. It would require 50 signatures from qualified voters for Assembly candidates, who run by district, and 250 for mayor and School Board candidates, who run citywide. Signers for an Assembly candidate would have to live in that district, and the same rules that govern signers of initiative and referendum petitions would apply. It would also move the filing period for regular elections a week earlier, to between 88 and 74 days before the election, from the current 81 to 67 days.

A similar requirement was part of an earlier election code update, AO 2026-116, which would have required signatures from 1% of the voters who cast ballots in the last regular election for the seat. The Assembly's agenda says the sponsors intend to postpone that version indefinitely on Oct. 6. A new election code update from Handeland and Assembly Member Sydney Scout, AO 2026-131, is also up for introduction the same night.

The sponsors' memo says the idea "is not new," naming Kenai, Sitka, Ketchikan, Kivalina, Quinhagak and the Northwest Arctic Borough as places where candidates must submit signatures. The Ketchikan Gateway Borough, for example, requires at least 10. The state once required signatures from 1% of voters for statewide candidates who sought a spot on the general election ballot by petition, a process repealed by the election overhaul voters approved in 2020.

The sponsors cite Lubin v. Panish, a 1974 U.S. Supreme Court case, and quote its view that "'laundry list' ballots discourage voter participation and confuse and frustrate those who do participate." In that case, the court struck down a filing fee that kept a candidate who couldn't afford it off the ballot, and it pointed to signature petitions as a reasonable alternative. It did not rule on requirements like Anchorage's. The sponsors' memo says court challenges to such rules have had mixed results, with courts striking down those that seriously restrict a diligent candidate's chance to run, and it predicts the proposed thresholds "are likely to withstand any challenge."

Write-in candidates would not need signatures. The memo says "ballot access is still available" to people who fail to submit enough, meaning they could still run as write-ins, though their names would not be printed on the ballot.

Residents can testify at the Nov. 4 hearing or send written testimony through the Assembly's online portal.