On August 1, the Alaska Division of Elections ruled that the Libertarian Party is not ballot-qualified for president, even though that conclusion directly contradicts a 1987 Attorney General ruling, and the law has not changed since 1987.

Alaska has two categories of qualified party, those that are qualified for all office, and those that are only qualified for President. The latter is called a “Limited Political Party.” The Libertarian Party polled 6.05% for President in November 2016. A “limited political party” retains its status as long as it polls at least 3% for President. But the Elections Division says that because the party lost its status as a “limited political party” in 1992 (by polling less than 3% for president that year) it doesn’t make any difference that the party polled over 3% in 2016.

Here is the ruling. In footnote 3 it says the facts in the 1987 were different, but the only difference is that at that time, the party had always polled 3% for President, whereas now, the opinion depends on the fact that the party didn’t poll 3% for president in 1992. It seems unreasonable to pay more attention to what happened in 1992 than to what happened in 2016.

Here is the 1987 Attorney General’s Opinion, which put the Libertarian Party on the ballot for the 1988 presidential election because it had polled over 3% for president in 1984. When the 1987 opinion was issued, the party was not qualified for office other than president, which matches the 2019 situation.