Alaska's Final Vote Tally Is Done: Ranked-Choice Repeal Failed, But There Was Some Good News

It's finally done. Here in the Great Land, the 2024 election results are final, the last tabulation of the ranked-choice voting is complete, and all results are in. The news, as is so often the case, is mixed.

First, Republican Nick Begich III is officially the winner of Alaska's At-Large seat in the House of Representatives. Red (mostly) Alaska will again be represented by a Republican, and Mary Peltola can go home to Bethel, where we wish her a long, happy, healthy life surrounded by her loved ones - and far away from politics. Incumbent Democrat Mary Peltola conceded on Wednesday.

After spending over a year calling Nick Begich III a scammer of seniors, a slave-owner of workers, and a man who single-handedly would lead to there being no fish, children, or jobs in Alaska, Rep. Mary Peltola conceded in the evening of Nov. 20, after the ranked-choice tabulation took place in the Juneau office of the state Division of Elections.

Begich had been projected to win by Decision Desk HQ on November 16th.

According to an analysis done by Suzanne Downing of the site Must Read Alaska, none of this year's elections had the initial count results overturned by the RCV system - which still doesn't make it any less a bad idea.

Not many seats in the 2024 general election in Alaska went through the ranked-choice voting machine on Wednesday evening. Only nine were contested enough to get to the tabulation phase.
The presidency had already been decided, as more than 54% of voters chose Donald Trump.
For the congressional seat, Nick Begich had a lead going into the ranking process and he maintained that lead. Under the regular voting system, he would have won anyway.
Then we get to the Senate and House races for the Alaska Legislature. There were nine that had more than two candidates, and after the ranking took place, the leaders were still ahead. Not a single one of them flipped to the second-place person.

I won't trouble you with the results of our state House and Borough elections, other than to note that I'm not disappointed with any of those outcomes. Our part of the Valley is pretty staunchly Republican, and the local election results generally reflect that.

Now for the bad news: Ballot Measure 2, the repeal of ranked-choice voting (RCV) failed - by a hair.

While the repeal measure, Ballot Measure 2, was leading in vote counts from Election Day until Monday, the lead evaporated as more early and absentee ballots were counted. The division faced a deadline to finish its count by Wednesday, which was the last day under state law that the division could accept postmarked ballots mailed from abroad.
The final count in the unofficial results had 159,955 in favor and 160,619 opposed, a 664-vote margin.

The organizer of the repeal, Phil Izon, sent an email to supporters on Wednesday vowing to bring the issue back to voters in 2026.

We have 400 Volunteers Signed Up Already
I need 100 sponsors to submit the new Repeal of RCV, I have changed the language to call the bill “Remove Ranked Choice Voting” “24RRCV will be the Title” most likely.
Please respond to this email if you would like to be one of the sponsors to Repeal RCV.
I will have another petition ready later this year, I will need 100 sponsors on that petition as well.

That's a narrow loss for the repeal, and the opposition was fueled by a great deal of money from "Outside." There's a chance that in 2026, in the lower turnout of more motivated voters typical for a mid-term election, we may be able to get this bad idea repealed. Mr. Izon shows no signs of giving up.

For now, here in Alaska, our long, torturous ballot counting is at last over and done with. Now we can stop, take a deep breath of sub-Arctic air, and start planning for 2026, because this is a contest that never, ever ends.