Alaska ranked-choice system threatened with fresh repeal efforts

Opponents of Alaska’s ranked-choice system are renewing their efforts to overhaul the voting method ahead of 2026 after an effort to undo the system narrowly failed last month.

Two groups submitted petitions this month that would get rid of ranked-choice voting and open primaries. One of those groups is also seeking to undo a provision aimed at offering greater transparency in campaign finance disclosures.

Both sides of the issue are already gearing up for what is likely to be an expensive and hard-fought fight as Alaska remains one of only two states where the system is used statewide.

One Alaska Republican strategist suggested they “wouldn't be surprised if the pro-RCV group, once again, spends 10, 12, 15 million dollars, and the group looking to repeal, perhaps, they are able to fundraise three or four million dollars and put it back on the ballot.”

Alaska made history in 2020 when it became the second state after Maine to vote to enact ranked-choice voting for federal and state elections. The ballot measure created an open primary where all candidates running for an office appeared listed under the same ballot. A voter chooses only one candidate in the primary, with the top four candidates advancing to the general election.

In the general election, voters rank their candidates. If no candidate outright wins the majority of the vote, the candidate who receives the fewest votes is eliminated, and the voters who chose the lowest vote-getter as their top choice have their votes for their second choice redistributed. The cycle continues until one candidate reaches a majority of the vote.

The 2020 ballot measure also included a component aimed at tackling dark money, offering greater transparency behind how individuals and groups receive contributions.

It was first used in the 2022 elections and played a key role in the special and regular House elections that year.

In those elections, Rep. Mary Sattler Peltola (D-Alaska) prevailed over two Republican candidates, becoming the first Democrat to represent Alaska in the House in 50 years. Her victory sparked backlash among Republicans who slammed ranked-choice voting as confusing and called for it to be repealed.

A petition gathered signatures to place an initiative to repeal it on the ballot this year, but the effort fell short by one of the tightest margins in the country, despite Peltola’s loss to Rep.-elect Nick Begich (R-Alaska) and the fact the groups associated with the effort were bogged down by campaign finance violations.

The initial tally had the measure fail by 664 votes out of more than 300,000 cast, and a recount confirmed the defeat. While the issue is not directly partisan, it has been increasingly polarizing.

“What it tells us is a lot of Alaska split their ticket and voted each race individually, not as much pure party ticket,” said strategist Robert Dillon, noting Pelota and the effort to stop the repeal performed considerably better in the state than Vice President Harris.

Advocates in favor of ranked choice spent close to $14 million, compared roughly $150,000 raised among opponents of the system.

Two groups this time are looking to repeal ranked-choice voting and the open primary system, the Anchorage Daily News reported earlier this month, which obtained both repeal petitions.

One is backed by Phillip Izon II, who also worked on the 2024 ballot measure. That ballot measure would strictly get rid of ranked-choice voting and open primaries.

Izon told The Hill in an email that he’s worked on other campaigns opposing ranked-choice voting across the country.

“I believe my efforts played a role in the failures of RCV throughout the U.S. at a total cost of $150 million, it is a major loss for the RCV efforts across the country,” he said. “I plan to help remove the system in Maine, Alaska and many other places it has been forced on Americans. Even places like Oakland who have used the system for 14+ years is looking to remove RCV.”

Former state Rep. Ken McCarty (R) filed a second proposal that would eliminate the voting system and the 2020 ballot measure’s campaign finance provision.

“There was $14 million worth of outside money that came in and completely told lies about ranked-choice voting,” said Bernadette Wilson, a senior adviser for the ballot campaign looking to repeal the entire 2020 ranked-choice ballot measure. “The reality is that ranked-choice voting disenfranchises and discriminates voters, and we are going to continue to fight for that no matter how many times we got to keep coming back.”

Asked how the voting system disenfranchises or discriminates against voters, Wilson argued that many voters don’t understand the system.

“When you look at ranked-choice voting, there are so many people who do not understand it. They don't vote down their entire ballot. Their ballots get exhausted. We hear that all the time, and we see it in the numbers,” Wilson said.

Proponents of ranked-choice voting argued that the system allows the government to run more smoothly, pointing to the less high-profile Alaska state Legislature.

The majority in the state House for the past few cycles and in the state Senate for the past cycle have been cross-party coalitions made up of Republicans, Democrats and independents. Functioning unlike any other state legislature majority, several key issues in common bind the bipartisan majority together, putting a more moderate group on both sides in charge.

Democratic strategist Amber Lee credited the system for causing the election of more moderate state legislators, which she said is more representative of Alaska.

“Ranked-choice voting continues to play a huge role, and we were able to retain it again,” she said. “We kept it, and I’m happy we did because I think it means we get more independents, we get more moderate Republicans, we get more moderate progressives, and I think that’s what Alaskans want.”

Dillon, who served as a staffer for Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R), said a “Trump bump” of a 10 percent increase in turnout in predominantly Republican areas coupled with a 10 percent drop in turnout from rural areas largely made up of Alaska Natives and Democrats explain why the result was so close this year.

If turnout resembled what it was in 2020, he said, the margin of victory for defeating the repeal initiative would have been larger.

“We’ll see what Alaskans say about it,” Dillon said, referring to the new repeal efforts. “They’re clearly not listening to Alaskans. The Republican Party’s not listening to the voters who said ‘Look, we want to keep this.’ That’s not the message they took away.”

Meanwhile, opponents of the election system have long argued it’s a confusing system and requires too much education. For former Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell (R), he argued that using a partisan primary system offered a better way to showcase the best candidates running.

“People who say, ‘Well, it's better to count the votes in such a way that more moderate candidates win,’” he said. “I think it's better to count the votes in such a way that each party or faction or group puts forward their best candidates possible and … those candidates can fight it out in the general election.”

The Alaska Republican strategist also suggested that given how other efforts to pass ranked-choice voting fared in other states, last month was “sort of telling as well.”

“If it doesn't pass in two years, they'll try it again in four years,” the strategist said about ranked-choice voting opponents’ efforts to repeal the system.

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