New York Inmate Will Stay on Alaska Ballot

UPDATE Sep 13, 2024 10:05 AM CDT

An inmate serving a 20-year sentence in a federal prison in New York can remain on the ballot for Alaska's sole US House seat, Alaska's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday. The court affirmed the Tuesday ruling of an Anchorage Superior Court judge who dismissed a lawsuit from the Alaska Democratic party, which argued that Eric Hafner is ineligible. The judge said redesigning the ballot could cause the Division of Elections to miss deadlines, the Alaska Beacon reports. Hafner, who has never lived in Alaska, is running as a Democrat. The race is considered a toss-up between Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola and GOP rival Nick Begich, and it could determine control of the House, reports NPR.

Sep 5, 2024 1:18 PM CDT

Eric Hafner has never been an Alaska resident—and since he's serving a 20-year sentence in a federal prison thousands of miles away, he's unlikely to become one anytime soon. But he's still set to appear on the ballot for the state's only US House seat in November, the Anchorage Daily News reports. The Alaska Democratic Party filed a lawsuit Wednesday, saying he "has no business being placed on the ballot."

• How? In the ranked-choice system Alaska voters approved in 2020, the top four candidates in the primary make it onto the ballot, regardless of party. Hafner, who is running as a Democrat, finished sixth with 437 votes, 0.43% of the total. But after Republican candidate Nick Begich finished second, behind only incumbent Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, the Republicans who finished in third and fourth place dropped out, lifting Hafner and fifth-placed Alaska Independence Party chief John Wayne Howe to the ballot places.

• How, part II. Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher tells KTUU that under the US Constitution, candidates don't need to be residents of the state where they are seeking a seat in Congress, "but they must become a resident once elected." In a statement provided by his mother, Hafner argued that he could meet the residency requirement if Kamala Harris becomes president and pardons him. "If President Harris wants my committed support in Congress, she can overturn any sentence," he said.
• His sentence. According to the Bureau of Prisons, Hafner is incarcerated in a federal prison in Otisville, New York, with a projected release date of 2036. In December last year, he was sentenced to 20 years for threatening numerous officials and their families and calling in bomb threats to government offices, the Asbury Park Press reported at the time. In one call, he threatened to kill the spouse and child of an officer who arrested him on a juvenile complaint in 2007.

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• This isn't his first run. This is the first time the 33-year-old has made it onto a general election ballot, but it's not the first time he's run for a House seat in a state he doesn't live in, KTUU reports. He filed to run as a Republican in Hawaii 2016 and as a Democrat in Oregon in 2018. His mother, Carol Hafner, ran in Wyoming in 2020 and Alaska in 2018.
• Why? Carol Hafner declined to comment to KTUU on the reasons for the out-of-state congressional runs. In an interview with KRBD cut short by the prison system's 15-minute phone call limit, Eric Hafner said he chose Alaska because it is a "very unique place with the climate change issues, with the Indigenous issues that are in Alaska, but also the very vast opportunity for positive development and progress."
• Peltola's take. "I think, like all Alaskans, I'm offended that someone from out-of-state who has never even stepped foot in Alaska thinks they can represent Alaska," Peltola tells KTUU.

(More Election 2024 stories.)