JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The state has sent more than 3,000 letters to Alaska voters asking them to verify their citizenship ahead of the Aug. 18 primary, a number a top state elections official said is unusually high.
The letters have raised concerns among some state lawmakers, including one who said some constituents who received them are U.S. citizens.
Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher told state lawmakers during a hearing this week that it appears “a lot of old data was picked up somehow" when the division conducted voter roll maintenance that compares its list with information held by the Division of Motor Vehicles. The process usually yields about 200 names for further review, she said.
Beecher estimated during Wednesday's hearing that the number of letters sent was around 3,500, but a Division of Elections spokesperson, Steve Kirch, on Thursday said the total was 3,048.
The revelation comes at a time of heightened sensitivity surrounding claims of noncitizen voting. Research and prosecutions have shown it to be extremely rare, but President Donald Trump and his allies have raised alarms since the presidential election cycle two years ago that noncitizen voting is widespread.
The president also has been trying to push voting changes through Congress that would require people to provide documents proving their citizenship to register to vote and a now-halted executive order that sought to create a federal list of verified voters, even though voter rolls are maintained by the states.
The Alaska letter asks recipients to affirm their citizenship status via letter, phone or email, and Beecher said the division is not requiring paperwork or documentation. Those who receive the letter are moved to a list of “inactive” voters. If the division doesn't hear back from the recipient, they still would be able to cast a special kind of ballot that also requires voters to attest to their qualifications to vote, she said.
“It is not disenfranchising the individual from being able to vote, but it’s a measure the division has to take to make sure that we only have citizens voting,” she said.
People who respond to the letter to say they are citizens will be moved back to the active list, Kirch said.
State Rep. Andrew Gray, a Democrat, said the only people who had contacted his office about the letters were people who are citizens. Another Democrat, state Rep. Ashley Carrick, asked if the letters were related to Alaska's decision late last year to share detailed data about the state's voters with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Beecher said it was not: “It has nothing to do with that,” she said, adding: “The information that we have received is specifically from DMV.”
She said the Division of Elections has not heard from the Department of Justice “regarding any list or the list that we provided that they identified noncitizens on that.”
Alaska was one of at least 16 states that have provided or said it would provide to the Trump administration detailed information about its voters — including dates of birth, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers, according to the Brennan Center. Alaska and Texas also signed agreements. The information is being run through a Department of Homeland Security program that checks for citizenship but has been criticized for its potential to flag eligible voters.
Voting and civil rights groups in Alaska earlier this year sued over the state's sharing of the information. That case is still pending.
In response to questions, the Division of Motor Vehicles released a memo Thursday saying the Division of Elections in March provided the agency “with a list of approximately 15,200 DMV license and identification applicants and requested that DMV provide citizenship information for these records.” The memo described it as a “nonroutine request.”
The memo said the Division of Elections followed up in June, seeking clarification. The DMV said it responded to say that data it provided “included only those records where DMV’s latest confirmed status for an individual was other than ‘Citizen.’”
Kirch said his agency had sent the DMV its “entire voter list and they ran ours against theirs.”
Beecher, during the legislative hearing, said it remained unclear why the list of voters identified as potential noncitizens was so large this time. It is possible people applied to get a driver's license before they were citizens and since then became citizens but that didn't show up in DMV records, she said.
“I believe that people probably don’t realize that all of these governmental entities don’t necessarily talk to each other,” she said.
Kirch gave an example on Thursday. He said if a person was not a citizen some years ago when they received their driver's license but since became a citizen and registered to vote when they applied for the annual dividend the state pays to residents from its oil-wealth fund, data from the DMV would still show them as not being a citizen.
He said people should update their information with the DMV to ensure they are not flagged in future citizenship checks.
FILE - A sign hangs outside the director's office of the Alaska Division of Elections, March 19, 2026, in Juneau, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer, File)
OGUNQUIT, Maine (AP) — Giant metal roosters are popping up on lawns in and around a community in southern Maine and as far away as New Zealand in support of a 6-year-old autistic girl and her love of the colorful creations.
David and Sara LeBlanc had a rotating display of the roughly 6-foot-tall (1.8-meter-tall) ornaments decorating their Ogunquit lawn until officials in the small coastal town deemed them to be impermissible advertising for their attached restaurant, The Omelette Factory.
The couple initially resisted the town's removal order, insisting the roosters were meant to comfort their daughter Pyper, not advertise their business.
“Roosters don’t lay eggs,” David LeBlanc told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
But they eventually came to an agreement with the town allowing them to keep two of the roosters in front of their home.
As for what to do with the others? That's where friends, neighbors and complete strangers came in.
The LeBlancs took in Pyper as a foster child and later adopted her. She arrived with a stuffed rooster, and roosters became her favorite animal, her parents said. When her father took her to a Tractor Supply Store to play with baby chicks last year, she noticed a large rooster sculpture for sale and asked her dad what it was saying.
“I think he wants to come home,” David LeBlanc said he told her.
Eventually, their collection grew to more than two dozen roosters, which they set up in batches for seasonal and holiday displays. Pyper took to hiding behind one each morning while waiting for the school bus, which her parents said helps her regulate her emotions and navigate transitions.
But the couple ruffled feathers when they added a rooster to their restaurant’s logo, which is featured on its shirts and other merchandise. Although the LeBlancs said they view the rooster as a “family crest,” the town saw their lawn statues as advertising.
A code enforcement officer, Tyler McOsker, issued the LeBlancs $450 in fines and ordered them in April to "remove all unpermitted signage, including but not limited to rooster statues."
McOsker didn't respond to an email requesting comment. But he told the Zoning Board of Appeals in June that he had no idea the roosters were connected to Pyper’s autism diagnosis until the couple appealed the fines. He also pointed to a May 2025 article in a local weekly newspaper that described the roosters as a “fun and unconventional way to announce that The Omelette Factory is officially open for business.”
“That, to me, is the definition of a sign. You’re announcing you’re opening,” McOsker told the board.
David LeBlanc said the reporter misinterpreted a customer’s joke about the roosters serving as an “Open” sign.
“We never said that,” he said.
The zoning board discussed the issue last month. At one point, board member Jay Smith voiced frustration at the lack of medical proof that the roosters were necessary.
“I’m inclined to think there may be some merit to a comfort animal on the front lawn … but the point is, how many does it take?” he said.
Autism spectrum disorder is a complex developmental condition that affects different people in different ways, and comfort objects are frequently incorporated into therapy for autistic children to help manage transitions, support emotional regulation and provide a sense of familiarity, Beverley Cush Evans, a professor of special education at Lesley University, told the AP.
“It’s part of who they are and what they need," she said.
Eventually, the board decided it lacked the authority to rescind the fines but tried to accommodate the family by granting a disability variance that essentially deemed two roosters necessary for Pyper’s access to the home.
“I want to emphasize we’re talking about two roosters. If they have babies or multiply in the night — no,” another board member said.
The variance requires the roosters to be part of a railing, however, and for now, they are just bolted to the steps. The couple has been fined another $500 for noncompliance.
David LeBlanc said he is moving on from the dispute and is focusing on the good that has come from it. The family has given roosters to others to “foster” and show their support for autism acceptance, starting with a man named Sam who lives up the road. Though Pyper was sad to see them go, she understands the adage about making lemonade, LeBlanc said.
“She understands that the roosters being taken away were the lemons, and Sam and his friends, fostering them, are the lemonade,” he said. “It’s a beautiful thing.”
Thanks to news coverage and a Roosters of Ogunquit Facebook page, the story has spread far and wide. One supporter wrote in from New Zealand sharing pictures of his children with a rooster statue in their yard.
Hetal Patel, who owns a motel in nearby Wells and has a relative with autism, wanted to buy a rooster after hearing about Pyper. They were sold out in the Ogunquit area, though, so she and her son went to New Hampshire last week to get one.
“We found the last one,” she said. “We couldn’t wait to put it out. People were so supportive, they were honking. It was so nice to see all the love for Pyper.”
Breakfast is served at The Omelette Factory, a restaurant whose owners are in dispute with the town over large tin roosters, in Ogunquit, Maine, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Pyper Leblanc examines a pair of tin roosters after they were set up at the Hilton Winn Farm in Ogunquit, Maine, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Pyper Leblanc plays by two tin roosters displayed at the Hilton Winn Farm in Ogunquit, Maine, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Large tin roosters decorate the entrance to the home of David and Sarah Leblanc, which is attached to their breakfast restaurant, The Omelette Factory, at left, in Ogunquit, Maine, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Pyper Leblanc shows her favorite tin rooster, one of dozens that now can be seen all over Ogunquit, Maine, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Pyper Leblanc kisses a tin rooster goodbye after a visit to the Hilton Winn Farm in Ogunquit, Maine, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
A large tin rooster stands alongside Main Street as a sign of solidarity for a young girl with autism in Ogunquit, Maine, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
A tin rooster stands outside the Wells Moody Motel in Wells, Maine, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
A small rooster stands outside a home as a sign of solidarity for a young girl with autism in Ogunquit, Maine, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
David LeBlanc sets up a rooster in front of the Memorial Library in Ogunquit, Maine, Thursday, July 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Tin roosters flank Rte. 1 in Wells, Maine, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Beach-goers pass by a large tin rooster set up outside a motel in solidarity with a young girl with autism in Ogunquit, Maine, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
