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Why Dunleavy vetoed SB 64
- Rich Moniak
- 20 hours ago
- 3 min read
By Rich Moniak
The explanation Gov. Mike Dunleavy gave for vetoing SB 64 is it “may present legal concerns” and “would impose significant operational burdens on the administration of Alaska's elections during an election year in which several statewide contests will occur.”
I don’t buy that. Because if the legislature passed a very similar election reform bill that he proposed in 2022, it would have taken effect before the 2022 election. The only thing that’s changed is the occupant in the White House.
In his brief explanation to the legislature, Dunleavy cites two “especially problematic” issues.
The first is about curing absentee and mail-in ballots that were submitted without a witness signature. He argues it’s in “tension” with “Alaska’s absentee-ballot framework.”
But as Rep. Kevin McCabe (R-Big Lake) points out, amending the existing law is badly needed because fixing any kind of ballot mistake currently relies “on vague Division (of Elections) internal guidance.”
The ballot tracking system was Dunleavy’s other concern. But his letter didn’t elaborate about why it troubled him, probably because there were only a few minor differences to tracking provision in the bill he previously proposed.
The more likely reason he vetoed SB 64 is he thinks he’ll need the endorsement of President Donald Trump to run for the U.S. Senate in 2028. And he’d risk losing that by crossing a red line established by Alaska’s MAGA faithful.
As I wrote after SB 64 was passed, Suzzanne Downing was one of the loudest voices calling on Dunleavy to veto it. She referred to it as “the Ranked-Choice Voting Protection Act.”
“Alaskans are already skeptical of a system that has gotten complicated, opaque, and increasingly out of their control with ranked-choice voting,” she wrote.
That mistrust has nothing to do with RCV. It’s rooted in the false claims of voter fraud Trump made in 2020 and has continued to make ever since. But he became invested in the fight over RCV after endorsing two Alaskans for Congress in 2022.
“It’s a total rigged deal just like a lot of other things in this country,” Trump said during a campaign rally for Kelly Tshibaka and Sarah Palin. He hasn’t forgotten they both lost. Last month he called RCV “ONE OF THE GREATEST THREATS TO DEMOCRACY.”
That’s right alongside his idea of “the greatest enemy America has,” which he recently identified as “the Radical Left, Highly Incompetent, Democrat Party.”
But it’s not just Democrats. Ask Sen. Lisa Murkowski and former Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, two moderate Republicans who voted to convict Trump in 2021 for the impeachment charge of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection. And former Wyoming Liz Cheney, a conservative further to their right who never criticized him until he refused to accept the results of the 2020 election.
Or the half dozen state senate Republicans in Indiana who lost their primary elections this week to challengers endorsed by Trump. Their offense was refusing to his order to gerrymander the state’s congressional boundaries to favor their party like Texas Republicans did.
It’s worth noting California responded to the unprecedented mid-cycle redistricting in Texas by holding a special election about redrawing its district boundaries to favor Democrats. After voters approved it, Trump put out an infantile social media post screaming it was “Unconstitutional” and claimed “the Voting itself” was “RIGGED."
His rage may be directed at elected officials who dare to oppose him. But his audience includes the people who crank out the vitriol that stirs up his base.
After commenting on the Indiana election results, New York Times Columnist David French succinctly summarized what happens next. “Talk to virtually any prominent person who breaks with Trump, and they can tell you stories of terrifying days and sleepless nights as MAGA’s minions made their lives a living hell.”
Across the country, many of those voters get their marching orders from the talk show hosts on Fox News, NewsMax, and right-wing podcasters. Closer to home, they trust people like Downing.
“Every Republican” who defends SB 64 “will be making a clear statement to voters about where they stand,” she wrote after the bill reached Dunleavy’s desk. “And everyone of those Republicans should be voted out of office, even if it means scorched earth and starting over, rebuilding the conservative movement from scratch.”
Dunleavy interpreted that to mean if he signed SB 64, Alaska’s MAGA faithful would find another candidate for Trump to endorse in 2028. So he paid the ransom by vetoing it.
• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector.
