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Alaska Third District

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The Alaska Third District is a judicial district in Alaska. It serves the boroughs of Aleutians East, Aleutians West, Municipality of Anchorage, Bristol Bay, Dillingham, Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak Island, Lake and Peninsula, Matanuska-Susitna, Valdez-Cordova and part of Yakutat.[1][2]

Ballotpedia:Trial Courts
Alaska District 3
Nesbett courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska

Elections

See also: Alaska judicial elections

Alaska is one of 43 states that hold elections for judicial positions. To learn more about judicial selection in Alaska, click here.

Selection method

See also: Assisted appointment

Judges of the Alaska District Courts are selected by gubernatorial appointment with help from a nominating commission. They must face retention two years after their appointment and then every four years thereafter.[3]

Qualifications
To serve on one of the district courts, a judge must be:[3][4]

  • at least 21 years of age;
  • a U.S. citizen;
  • a resident of Alaska for at least five years;
  • licensed to practice law in the state and active for at least three years; or
  • a magistrate for at least seven years and possessing of a law degree.

Election rules

Retention election

In these elections, judges do not compete against another candidate, but voters are given a "yes" or "no" choice in deciding whether to keep the judge in office for another term. The judge must receive a majority of "yes" votes to remain in office. Judges must face their first retention at the next general election occurring at least three years after their appointment. The exception to this are the district court judges, who face retention two years after their appointment.[5]

Judges must file their intention to run for retention by August 1.[5] At least 60 days prior to the election, the Alaska Judicial Council publishes its evaluations of the judges up for retention.[6][7][8][9]

Noteworthy cases

Federal prisoner ruled ballot eligible (2024)
See also: Alaska Third District (Alaska Democratic Party and Anita Thorne v. Director Carol Beecher, 3AN-24-08665CI)

On September 10, 2024, Judge Ian Wheeles dismissed the lawsuit filed by the Alaska Democratic Party (ADP) to remove Eric Hafner (D), a candidate to represent Alaska's at-large congressional district, from the ballot. At the time of the lawsuit, Hafner was serving a 20-year sentence at a federal prison in New York for threatening elected officials, and he was set to be released in 2036.[10][11]

The ADP argued that since Alaskan ranked-choice voting law dictates that if a top four candidate withdraws, the fifth place candidate will take the spot, having a sixth place candidate like Hafner make it on to the ballot is unprecedented and illegal. Nancy Dahlstrom (R) and Matthew Salisbury (R) both withdrew after making the top four which granted John Howe and Hafner spots on the ballot. The ADP also argued that Hafner is ineligible as the Constitution requires that a candidate for U.S. House must be “an inhabitant of that State” by the time they are elected.[10][11]

The state argued that if the Division of Elections was required to stop printing ballots and print new ones without Hafner, it would likely incur significant costs and they would risk missing state and federal ballot deadlines. They also argued that the ADP was seeking to remove Hafner in order to further advance the candidate they had endorsed, Mary Peltola (D). Prior to Dahlstrom and Salisbury withdrawing, Peltola was going to be the only Democrat on the ballot.[10][11]

In his opinion, Judge Ian Wheeles ruled that ranked-choice voting allows each vote to rank however they choose therefore eliminating any potential claim of harm. He also ruled that the court could not weigh in on the probability of Hafner residing in Alaska by Election Day. Finally, in reference to the Alaskan voting statute, Wheeles ruled that the language used is meant to be an example of the ballot filling process when a candidate withdraws and it is not limited to only fifth place moving up only.[10][11]


See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Alaska Court System, "About the Trial Courts," accessed November 25, 2015
  2. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named judges
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Alaska; Limited Jurisdiction Courts," archived October 2, 2014
  4. ↑ Alaska Court System, "The District Courts," accessed May 16, 2014
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 FindLaw - Alaska Statutes, "Chapter 15.35, Article 3," accessed June 18, 2014
  6. ↑ FindLaw, "Alaska Stat. § 22.05.100.," accessed June 18, 2014
  7. ↑ FindLaw, "Alaska Stat. § 22.07.060.," accessed June 18, 2014
  8. ↑ FindLaw, "Alaska Stat. § 22.10.150.," accessed June 18, 2014
  9. ↑ FindLaw, "Alaska Stat. § 22.15.195.," accessed June 18, 2014
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 NPR, "He's in a New York prison. Yet courts let him stay on a U.S. House ballot — in Alaska," September 12, 2024
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Alaska's News Source, "Judge rules to allow imprisoned U.S. House candidate to appear on ballot," September 10, 2024

Alaska courts

Federal courts:

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Alaska • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Alaska

State courts:

Alaska Supreme Court • Alaska Court of Appeals • Alaska Superior Court • Alaska District Court

State resources:

Courts in Alaska • Alaska judicial elections • Judicial selection in Alaska

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