Despite a bitter fight led by the left and funded by a lot of money from outside the Great Country, the Alaska Supreme Court has ruled in favor of common sense. The initiative to abolish the Ranked Choice Voting System (RCV) and jungle primaries will be on the ballot in Alaska in November.
If we can just get the people of Alaska to vote against this stupidity.
A ballot proposal that could abolish Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system will be voted on in November, the Alaska Supreme Court confirmed Thursday.
In a compact instructionthe five members of the court affirmed a lower court decision upholding Ballot Proposition 2, which would repeal the laws that created the state Ranking general elections and open primaries.
The order came shortly after the justices heard oral arguments in an appeal that alleged the Alaska Division of Elections improperly authorized the measure.
“Today, the Court quickly affirmed that the Elections Division correctly interpreted and applied the law when it certified this initiative for the November ballot,” said Senior Assistant Attorney General Lael Harrison in an emailed statement. “The Law Division is grateful to the Court for its timely review and decision on this matter, well in advance of the Division’s upcoming deadlines for printing election materials.”
This year’s primary took place on August 20 under the “jungle” system and included a Worryingly low voter turnoutWith the GOP nomination split between Republicans Nick Begich III and Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom, Democratic incumbent Mary Peltola received 50.39 percent of the vote, Begich 26.96 percent and Dahlstrom 19.97 percent. Begich had vowed to drop out of the race and support his Republican colleague should she garner a larger share of the vote; Dahlstrom has made no such promise and shows every indication that she will stick around, although her Facebook page reportedly explodes with demands that she should get out.
It is crucial to note that even if Dahlstom stays in the race, Republicans can still win the seat if Alaskans follow the “Rank the Red” rule and rank both Republican candidates higher than everyone else.
And yes, Alaskans need to vote. Hopefully the repeal initiative will lead to better voter turnout in the general election in November.
So far on RedState: Ranked choice voting: Coming soon to a state near you and how Alaska fought back
It’s official: The abolition of ranked choice voting will appear on Alaska’s 2024 ballot
The low voter turnout in the primaries could be due to what some see as “boring choice.”
It’s been 24 years since Alaska’s primary election didn’t include a Senate race, a gubernatorial race or a ballot initiative. Burke Croft, deputy director of data at progressive campaign firm Ship Creek Group, said that could have led to lower voter turnout.
“It’s like a historically boring election and has nothing to do with who ran,” said John-Henry Heckendorn, managing partner of the Ship Creek Group.
Croft believes that a higher proportion of Democrats and independents voted early or by mail in the primary than in previous elections. He believes that more Democrats participated in the primary overall than expected.
Let’s hope so.
Mary Peltola won her first full term in no compact part because she clung to Senator Lisa Murkowski for re-election. “Murkowski/Peltola” signs were spread all over Anchorage and a few other places, and Peltola may well have benefited from Murkowski’s usual coalition of “soft” Republicans and moderate Democrats. But there’s little doubt that she also benefited from the RCV, as she ran against two Republicans who split the vote not inconsiderably due to the confusing nature of the system; as I stood in line to vote in 2022 (and this is grossly unscientific), I heard several people say, “I don’t care what’s on the ballot, I’ll just vote Nick/Sarah and that’s it.”
Ranked choice voting is being proposed in other states across the country. As an Alaskan, I can say this is a bad system. It is touted as a way to escalate the chances of third-party candidates, but in practice it is just a system that disregards the principle of “one citizen, one vote.” Hopefully Alaskans will abandon this system in November – and hopefully the rest of the country will avoid this bad idea.
