In 2020, Alaskans voted in ranked-choice voting (RCV), which was first used in the 2022 election. In this, Alaska was saddled with RCV by a narrow win, in which the pro-RCV side was vastly outspent by the anti-RCV side. In 2024, there was a repeal of RCV on the ballot, which was defeated, again, by a narrow margin, a little over 700 votes, in fact. This came again after a lot of money was poured into the pro-RCV side, mostly from Outside.
Now, tech mogul Elon Musk is going to help level that playing field by dumping $1.5 million to a group promoting the repeal. That's good. Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has given $1.5 million to a group supporting the repeal of Alaska’s voting system, according to a report filed with the state Friday.
Ballot Measure 2, which will appear on the November ballot, seeks to repeal Alaska’s ranked choice voting method, along with open primaries and campaign finance laws that were themselves adopted by ballot measure in 2020.
Musk gave $1.5 million last month to the Aurora Action Network, a Wisconsin-based political action committee that has already collected contributions from numerous billionaire megadonors, including Dick Uihlein, Jeff Yass, Timothy Mellon and Hilcorp owner Jeffery Hildebrand. Aurora Action Network then gave the repeal campaign $1 million in late July.
Musk’s contribution, which make up a sizable share of the repeal campaign’s fundraising, could prove pivotal for the future of Alaska’s elections.
Good. Plenty of Alaskans, myself among them, don't much care for wealthy donors from Outside meddling in our affairs, much less using us as a laboratory for an ill-advised voting scheme that seems tailor-made to help the Democrats. These same donors are willing to spend big to keep Alaska on this system, so they can propose it in other states, pointing to Alaska as the example.
This year, Alaska needs to round-file this scheme, and if Elon Musk wants to help, I say, heck yeah. We work, not with the system we would want, but the system we have, and that makes Elon's help all the more valuable. There's also a campaign finance element to this whole thing:
The ballot measure would revert Alaska to closed partisan primaries and pick-one general elections. It would also eliminate campaign finance laws that enable Alaska voters to know when big spenders like Musk give money to Alaska campaigns.
It's not completely clear why that was tacked on. Personally, I'd rather have seen a clean ballot issue. But the priority here is getting rid of RCV. And, if possible, it would be great if we could do this before the 2028 election, when a certain troublesome senator is up for reelection.
The pro-repeal side, even with Elon's donation, is still far behind in financing. We're used to that. But we were far, far outspent in 2024, and we only lost by a tad over 700 votes out of over 334,000 cast. We can get this done, with every conservative Alaskan understanding what's at stake here, and voting accordingly.
I talk to a lot of people here in the Susitna Valley. Granted our corner of Alaska is one of the redder parts of our vast state, but most of the folks I've discussed this with would like to see RCV gone. Maybe, with a little help from our friends, this will be our year.
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