Earlier this month, Alaska purged its list of registered voters, to delete people who haven’t voted in the last four years. The new registration totals for each party, compared to the totals just prior to the November 2008 election, show that the two major parties have proportinately gained, whereas the number of voters registered as independents, or as members of minor parties, has declined.
The list below shows the percentage of voters in each party. Listed first is the October 2008 share of the registration; listed second is the March 2009 share:
Independent: 52.92%, 52.62%
Republican: 25.65%, 26.12%
Democratic: 15.51%, 15.69%
Alas. Indpc: 2.78%, 2.72%
Libertarian: 1.39%, 1.26%
Rep Moderate: .77%, .65%
Green: .59%, .54%
Veterans: .39%, .38%
Parties need 9,735 registered members to be ballot-qualified for 2010, unless they polled 3% for U.S. Senate in 2008 (only the Republicans, Democrats, and Alaskan Independence Party polled as much as 3% for U.S. Senate in 2008). The Alaskan Independence Party now has 12,971 registrants, so it meets both the vote test and the registration test. There are 6,031 Libertarians, 3,115 Republican Moderates, 2,592 Greens, and 1,827 Veterans Party members.
So this means that the Democrats and the Alaskan Independence Party are the only ones who will list their candidates on the 2010 blanket primary ballot???
When the Greens and the Libertarians were qualified, they also listed their candidates on the blanket ballot.
Actually, due to our quirky election laws, the Libertarian Party will continue to be listed until after 2010. The AKLP will be de-listed after that, having failed to achieve sufficient votes or statewide voter registration.