Alaska seems to have become Ground Zero for the lunatic scheme known as Ranked-Choice Voting, or RCV. It was passed by ballot in 2020, narrowly, despite the anti-RCV side being outspent massively by the pro-RCV side - the pro-RCV side, I might note, was funded largely by donors from Outside, who wished to use Alaska as a test case. A repeal was on the 2024 ballot, which failed even more narrowly, by a little over 600 votes, despite the pro-repeal campaign being, again, heavily outspent.
Now it's going to be on the ballot again, this fall. And neither side of the issue is happy about how the ballot question is worded.
A measure to repeal Alaska’s nonpartisan primaries and ranked choice general elections will be on the ballot this year, but exactly how it's worded remains a hot dispute.
Both sides of the repeal — pro- and anti — have now sued the Division of Elections to try to change the language, because how voters interpret what they see on the ballot can affect the outcome.
Repeal Now filed its lawsuit last week. Consultant Greg Powers said the wording the state proposes is more complicated than it should be.
“It makes it sound like we're doing other things in this ballot measure," Powers said. "But really, all the ballot measure does is return Alaska elections to how they were before ranked choice voting, before that ranked choice voting proposition passed. So we would like the ballot language to reflect that.”
That should be simple enough. It was Ballot Measure 2 in the 2020 election. Simply write, "Shall Ballot Measure 2, as described and approved in the Alaska 2020 election, be repealed?" Something along those lines should do the trick.
The anti-repeal side has a more complicated case to make.
Attorney Scott Kendall is the architect of Alaska’s current voting method, adopted by voters in 2020. In addition to opening the primary and allowing ranked choice, the 2020 reforms require more campaign disclosures, to reduce so-called “dark money.”
Kendall wants the ballot language to specify that the repeal would get rid of all those things.
That's a fool's errand. Nobody, no law, no nothing, no kidding, will ever get the money out of politics, and that's for sure and for certain. And it's certainly no reason to keep a confusing voting system that violates the principle of one voter, one vote.
Read More: Alaska's Governor Dunleavy Speaks Out Against Ranked Choice Voting
Alaska GOP Clears First Hurdle in New Attempt to Repeal Controversial Voting Scheme
And bet on one thing: The pro-repeal side will be outspent again, just like in 2024, and much of the funding for campaigning against the repeal will come from Outside, just like in 2024.
Look, any system that the left likes and wants to keep is bound to be bad, especially where elections are involved. In 2022, had the original, traditional primary system been in place, Senator Lisa Murkowski may well have lost the primary to Kelly Tshibaka, but RCV arguably saved her - and she has been a vocal advocate for that system. Of course, Senator Murkowski, we must remember, lost the Republican primary in 2010 to Republican Joe Miller, then won re-election on a write-in campaign; we shouldn't underestimate Princess Lisa's survival instincts.
But RCV is a bad system for Alaska, and unless we can get rid of it, the left will use it as a springboard to try to implement it elsewhere. So far, the legal wrangling is just beginning - but expect it to continue, right up to November, and it's just one more reason for Alaskans to get out there and vote, no matter what.
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