Who is the former Alaska resident, BLM manager charged with residency fraud, voter misconduct?

An investigation by Alaska Wildlife Troopers has led to multiple felony and misdemeanor charges against a former Alaska resident now living in Colorado.

According to Alaska State Troopers, 51-year-old Valerie Baxter, who works for the Bureau of Land Management in Silt, Colorado, is accused of fraudulently claiming Alaska residency to obtain hunting and fishing licenses, along with illegally voting as an Alaskan resident.

Valerie Baxter is registered Democrat in District 34  and received 2024 absentee by-mail ballot at 423 Knoll Avenue, Craig, Colorado. She had the same registration and mailing address for her 2022 absentee by/mail ballot. She would be a vote for Democrat Mary Peltola, who won in 2022 for Congress, but lost in 2024. She would also have been a vote against Sen. Robert Myer in 2022, and against Rep. Frank Tomaszewski in 2022 and 2024.

The investigation began in January 2025 after troopers received information suggesting Baxter had been unlawfully obtaining Alaska resident licenses. Investigators found that Baxter moved out of Alaska in 2018 and sold her home in 2021. Since that time, she has reportedly spent only about 40 days in the state, which would be far short of what is required to maintain Alaska residency.

Despite that, troopers say Baxter continued to represent herself as a resident. In 2022, she purchased 18 separate resident draw permits along with a resident sport fish, hunt, and trap license for 2023. In 2024, she again obtained resident licenses and a Chitina Personal Use Salmon Fishery Permit, later recording the harvest of 35 salmon.

Investigators also discovered that Baxter had applied for absentee ballots in Alaska elections in 2022 and 2024, listing an Alaska address as her residence while living in Colorado.

After a months-long investigation coordinated with the Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions, Baxter was charged with 18 counts, including Perjury, Voter Misconduct, Unsworn Falsification, and False Statement on a Fish and Game Application.

Alaska Wildlife Troopers credited assistance from the Bureau of Land Management, US Customs and Border Protection, the US Postal Inspection Service, and state prosecutors.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Baxter serves as Assistant Field Manager for Minerals and Lands at the BLM’s Colorado River Valley Field Office in Silt, Colorado. Before that, she held similar positions in Craig, Colorado, and with BLM offices in Wyoming, Nevada, and Fairbanks, Alaska. She previously worked for the Alaska Department of Natural Resources for 17 years and graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1996.