Prohibition Party Qualifies for Political Group Recognition in Alaska

The Prohibition Party has qualified for political group recognition in Alaska, allowing state voters to register as members of the party and requiring the Alaska Division of Elections to track its total registrations.

Prohibition Party Chair Zack Kusnir confirmed in a November 24 statement to Independent Political Report that the group is now “officially recognized.” He added that the party is awaiting signature verification to apply for “limited political party” status, which, if granted, would give it a ballot line in future presidential elections.

The Alaska Division of Elections website also now lists the Prohibition Party alongside other recognized political groups, which includes the Alaska Constitution Party, the Green Party of Alaska, and the Conservative Party USA.

Under Alaska law, a political group is an organized group of voters seeking status as a recognized political party. It functions as the first step toward formal party status, with the Division of Elections tracking its registered voters. Meanwhile, a limited political party is a political group that organizes specifically to select presidential and vice-presidential electors.

To further qualify for limited party status, a group like the Prohibition Party must file a petition containing a number of valid signatures equal to at least 1% of the number of Alaskans who voted in the 2024 presidential election, and then maintain the status by winning at least 3% of the statewide vote in the next presidential race. According to the Division of Elections, the party would need 3,409 signatures and has until August 2028 to submit them.

Alaska has prohibitions on alcohol in many places. It’s illegal to bring any form of alcohol into those areas.

“In 2012, Alaska State Troopers seized the $95,000 Cessna U206D aircraft owned by Fairbanks bush pilot Ken Jouppi after discovering beer in a passenger’s luggage during a flight from Fairbanks to Beaver, a village that banned alcohol in 2004.

Although the plane never left the airport, Jouppi was charged and convicted of a misdemeanor bootlegging offense for knowingly transporting alcohol into a dry community.
He was sentenced to three days in jail and a $1,500 fine, the statutory minimum.

The beer, consisting of three cases—two of Budweiser and one of Bud Light—was intended as a gift for the passenger’s husband, the local postmaster.

While prosecutors argued that at least one six-pack was visible in a shopping bag, Jouppi maintained he was unaware of the beer.

The trial court initially refused to order the plane’s forfeiture, citing the Eighth Amendment’s excessive fines clause, but the state appealed.

After years of legal back-and-forth between state courts, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in April 2025 that forfeiting Jouppi’s plane was not an excessive fine, stating that even a single six-pack of beer knowingly imported into a dry village causes “grave societal harm” due to alcohol’s links to crime, health disorders, and public costs in rural Alaska.

The court held the forfeiture was not “grossly disproportional” to the offense.”

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