Initiative Authorizing Alaskan Independence Denied Certification

(Anchorage) - Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell announced today that he denied certification to an application for an initiative entitled, “An Act requiring the State of Alaska to vote on seeking changes to existing law and constitutional provisions to authorize Alaskan independence,” designated 07AKIN by the Division of Elections.

The Lieutenant Governor made the decision to deny certification based on a recommendation by the Department of Law, which determined that the application does not comply with the constitutional and statutory provisions governing use of the initiative.

The Lieutenant Governor agreed with the Department of Law’s recommendation which stated, “The bill proposed by the initiative application calls for Alaska to seek changes in ‘existing law and Constitutional provisions’ to allow it to secede from the United States. The Court in Kolhaas held that ‘[w]hen the forty-nine-star flag was first raised at Juneau, we Alaskans committed ourselves to that indestructible Union, for good or ill, in perpetuity. To suggest otherwise would disparage the republican character of the National Government.’ Id. at 720. Secession is clearly unconstitutional and to seek changes in the law to allow a state to secede from the indestructible Union is also unconstitutional.”

To review the Division of Elections’ website containing text of the proposed initiative, click here. To review the Lieutenant Governor’s letter to the initiative’s sponsors click here. To review the recommendation by the Department of Law, click here.

Initiative applications are not “approved” or “disapproved” by the Lieutenant Governor, rather they are “certified” or “denied.” State law specifies criteria that must be met for an initiative application to be certified.