How Rank Is Ranked-Choice Voting in Alaska? — Research It Yourself
Contributed by Nan Potts
If you voted in the August 20th Primary, you’re probably scratching your head wondering how your vote was counted. Ranked-Choice voting is a very complex, easily corrupted, confusing voting system.
It is lauded by individuals and organizations whose candidate won using this system. Why not, it worked for their candidate. When asked what voters’ impression of the system was, the voters whose candidate either didn’t make it through the “instant run-off voting” or lost in the first round, there were a myriad of answers. However, all agreed that it’s confusing, manipulative and unfair. Many feel it is being used as a political weapon in our voting system by suppressing their votes and manipulating election outcomes. The sense of being invalidated and powerless to overcome the current voting system is overwhelming. This is where the “Yes on 2” campaign steps in to give hope to voters and pathways for voters to return the one-vote-per-voter practice back to its traditional format. — yeson2ak.com
By definition, RC voting provides for voters to rank the candidates,1st through nth places. Very non-traditional from one vote per voter. However, according to AK Division of Elections, it is not mandatory to fill-in or rank all of the candidates. Voting for one or two candidates is OK. Remember to rank wisely.
— www.elections.alaska.gov
By now you understand, if no candidate wins a “majority” (51% or more) of initial votes, the race goes into multiple “rounds” called instant-runoff voting until one candidate receives a majority of the votes. (For a FULL EXPLANATION go to, www.elections.alaska.gov [See, How RCV Works]). Once you’ve watched the explanatory video several times, you’ll catch on to how RC really works. There is logic to this system, but you may find yourself thinking, Is that really fair?
Our August 20th Primary resulted with Mary Peltola accumulating 50.89% of the votes, Nick Begich with 26.57% and Nancy Dahlstrom with 19.90% of the votes. Since Peltola was 0.11% shy of a majority, the counting went into the next round. Begich and Dahlstrom split the Republican race but Nancy withdrew allowing Begich to step as the Republican candidate. After several weeks, further rounds selected Eric Hefner (a convicted felon, imprisoned in New York State) and John Wayne Howe to testify ballot. A write-in candidate is to complete the Alaskan US Representative ballot
— www.elections.alaska.gov/ (See 2024 Sample Ballots).
In others, words, the tabulation of the ballots took weeks. What can change in a few weeks? Increased opportunity for error and fraud.
Since RC voting can be daunting to many, due to its complexity resulting in some voters refusing to vote, low voter turnout has happened. Witness 2022 Alaska Midterm Election — the first time RC voting was used saw a record low voter turnout of 44% (18,000 less voters than the 2018 election). — - www.elections.alaska.gov/results/24PRIM/ElectionSummaryReport.pdf.
This system also makes voting more complicated. When enough voters feel the elevated potential to make an error in voting for whom they truly wish to elect and the possibility of their ballot being tossed or candidate lose due to their error, they refuse to vote. This is even more problematic with absentee ballots since mistakes on ballots at the polls can be easily caught and corrected, mailed in votes (absentee ballots) cannot. Instead, voting errors are detected during tabulation and are irreparable. Wouldn’t these issues fall under the heading of voter suppression?
Then there is the confusion with “exhausted” or “inactive” ballots. These are ballots that are finished being counted due to candidates being eliminated from an election (and all other ranked choices on the ballot have been counted, if any) or the ballot format itself limits preferences. These are not tossed, instead these ballots have exhausted their count.
— www.elections.alaska.gov (See Exhausted Ballots)
Yet, the true trademark of RC voting is its creation of a fake majority. Because candidates fail to win a majority in the first round, RC voting allows for votes in the second round to be distributed to other candidates and so on until a majority is achieved and a winner selected.
Is this fair to the voters who do not want to vote for the other candidates? They want one vote, their candidate. Yet, if they place votes for the lesser candidates as well, those in 2nd thru nth places, those candidates may accrue votes sufficient enough to win the election. It has happened. — www.elections.alaska.gov
Who’s pushing Alaska to keep the RC voting system (vote no on measure 2)? If you quickly read the bottom of their TV ads or heard the ending of their radio spots, they are Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), nonprofits that have questionable purposes. Most of these are outside Alaska and some have origins outside the US. It’s known as “dark money”, and it is fueling election re-engineering in our country. Names can be called out and fingers pointed at billionaires who have a history of contributions to clandestine agendas. But, why? — They have money, given as donations and they use it for the power to control. Whether you believe it to be for Globalization and Globalism or a Marxist Society, those ideological elements and practices being carried out right now, create chaos to diminish the individual’s rights and freedoms.
What can be done to stop RC voting in Alaska? It’s on our November 5th ballot. We must use RC voting for our Presidential and US Representative candidates. But to rid this menace of a system it takes a YES vote on Measure 2 (See sample 2024 ballots at www.elections.alaska.gov). If you download a sample ballot, read it thoroughly. Educate yourself and assist your friends plus, get involved with the “Yes on 2” campaign — yeson2ak.com. There is a good chance it will be repealed.
Once you gain this information necessary to repeal RC voting, you are armed with the knowledge and it’s time to spread the word. Volunteering to canvass, do a phone bank or distribution of literature, your time and efforts are invaluable. Lastly, donate. Financial support for this venture will enhance the outreach efforts.
Vote YES on Measure 2, and this rank choice will be gone!
(Interesting research sources to consider on YouTube: Ranked Choice Voting Explained — Foundation for Government Accountability, Ted-Ed Which Voting System is Best — Alex Gendler, Rigged Choice Voting — Heritage Foundation. For comic relief try the short, Ranked Choice Voting Explained [Kidding]).