By SUZANNE DOWNING
Sept. 23, 2026 – Former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson proposed borrowing an election-security practice used in Afghanistan and some other Third World countries in Africa: marking voters’ fingers with indelible ink after they cast a ballot.
Bronson, one of four candidates for Alaska governor, raised the idea Tuesday during an Anchorage Rotary gubernatorial forum at the Petroleum Club.
The low-tech system is intended to prevent a person from voting more than once. After casting a ballot, a voter has a finger marked or dipped in ink designed to remain visible for several days.
Bronson pointed to the practice in Afghanistan, where election officials used indelible ink during national elections held after the fall of the Taliban government in 2001.
Alaska candidate for governor Dave Bronson suggests that Alaska adopt a method used in third world countries — forcing voters to dip their fingers in ink so they cannot vote more than once. You cannot make this stuff up. pic.twitter.com/Dc0h4hP7WJ
— TheAlaskaStory.com (@Downing907) September 23, 2026
But Afghanistan’s experience also exposed serious shortcomings and dangers that Bronson did not discuss in his brief answer.
During Afghanistan’s 2004 presidential election, complaints arose that some of the ink could be washed off, undermining confidence in the safeguard. Similar complaints resurfaced in 2009, when reporters found that ink used at some polling places could be removed with common cleaning products.
More gravely, the visible mark made voters identifiable in areas where the Taliban threatened people for participating in elections. Afghan election monitors reported that militants cut off the ink-stained fingers of two voters after the 2009 election. In 2014, the Taliban severed two fingers from another voter as punishment for casting a ballot.
The Taliban abolished Afghanistan’s election commission after returning to power in August 2021, and the country has held no national election since. The finger-marking procedure is therefore no longer in use there, something Bronson did not acknowledge.
Indelible election ink is not unique to Afghanistan. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems reports that more than 90 countries have used it to deter multiple voting. Its principal advantage is simplicity: Poll workers need no electronic network to see that a person has already voted.
Applying such a system across Alaska, however, would raise practical and legal questions that Bronson did not address. Alaska allows early voting, absentee voting and voting by mail in addition to Election Day voting. A stain lasting only several days would not by itself cover the full voting period, while a longer-lasting mark would publicly identify a person as having participated in an election.
That would not reveal how the person voted, but it could invite objections involving privacy, compelled marking, and a suppression of political expression. Whether a properly enacted requirement would violate the First Amendment would likely be tested in court, but the approach would likely be challenged on constitutional grounds.
Bernadette Wilson was the only candidate of the four in the Rotary gubernatorial forum who objected to that method being used in Alaska.
“Under no situation ever would I think that it is OK to ask you to give your fingerprint into ink to prove that you have voted. If I’ve got to fight like hell to end that nonsense, I absolutely would,” Wilson said.
Alaska candidate for governor Bernadette Wilson says it's time to end automatic voter registration for anyone applying for a PFD. Rotary Club gubernatorial forum. pic.twitter.com/WN321jPVyX
— TheAlaskaStory.com (@Downing907) September 23, 2026
Bronson did not explain how finger ink would work for Alaskans voting by mail, from villages like Kaktovik, Shungnak, Buckland, or any number of tiny communities where people are mostly related as relatives. Nor did he give details about how long the mark would last, what substance would be used, how voters with allergies or disabilities would be accommodated, or what evidence shows that repeat in-person voting is occurring at a scale that would justify the statewide mandate.
From Utqiagvik to Kasaan and Ketchikan to Nome, the proposal would represent a conspicuous change in how Alaskans exercise the right to vote. Bronson did not present an implementation plan or say whether he would seek the change through legislation, regulation or an administrative directive.
Here were the answers on the election integrity question from candidates Treg Taylor and Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins:
The answers from Treg Taylor and Jonathan Kreiss Tomkins on election integrity in Alaska. pic.twitter.com/yPPDccOLqA
— TheAlaskaStory.com (@Downing907) September 24, 2026
