Gaming Commission Initiative Certified

(Anchorage) - Lieutenant Governor Loren Leman today certified an initiative petition for the 2008 Primary Election ballot titled, “An Act relating to establishing the Alaska Gaming Commission.”

The initiative’s prime sponsors are Darwin Biwer, Cindy Menichetti and Barbara J. Alberg.

Sponsors collected at least 31,450 signatures from registered Alaska voters to qualify the initiative for a vote of the people. This is 10 percent of the 314,502 votes cast in the 2004 general election. Under the constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2004, signatures are needed from at least seven percent of voters in at least 30 of the 40 Alaska House Districts. Sponsors had one year from the time they received petition booklets to collect the required signatures.

To view the memorandum from the Division of Elections for this initiative click here. To view the certification letter for this initiative click here.

Note: Initiative petitions are not “approved” or “disapproved” by the Lieutenant Governor based on his opinion of them. Rather, they are “certified” or “not certified.” The State constitution and Alaska Statutes specify criteria that must be met for an initiative to be certified.