Alaska

Ranked Choice Double Header: Alaska’s Move to Rank Choice Voting & the Summer Special Election

Election Law Society · December 12, 2022 ·

By Margaret Dupree

Alaska’s new ranked choice voting system is experiencing a double-header in 2022. In 2020, Alaskans passed Ballot Measure 2, which created the ranked choice system for general elections, while maintaining a single choice system for primaries. Alaskans still vote for the one candidate of choice in primaries, but in general elections they rank the candidates on their ballots. If one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in the first round of calculations (i.e., they were the “First Choice” candidate for more 50% of voters) the vote tabulation stops and does not move to a second round. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote after round one, the candidate with the least votes is eliminated, and the ballots of the voters who chose that losing candidate are recounted using their second choice. This process repeats until a candidate has more than 50% of the vote.

Alaskans voted for the measure during the 2020 presidential election by a margin of 50.55% to 49.45%; turnout for the 2020 election in Alaska was 60.67%. Despite litigation challenging the implementation of the voting system, the Alaska Supreme Court upheld the narrowly-passed ballot measure in early 2022, making it the voting system for the 2022 midterms. However, due to the death of Rep. Don Young in March 2022, ranked choice voting was implemented even earlier than the midterms to fill the at-large seat in August for the remainder of his term.

While many other municipalities across the United States use ranked choice voting, Alaska is only the second state in the nation to implement it; Maine implemented ranked choice voting beginning in 2018. Advocates of ranked choice voting argue that the system results in more representative outcomes, and helps decrease negativity in election cycles. Another benefit of ranked choice voting systems is that it prevents a candidate winning with only a plurality of voters, as opposed to a typical first-past-the-post system which can result in the winning candidate having a minority of the vote in contentious or crowded elections. However, there are critiques that arise, principally that the system is complicated, and that in a polarized political climate, voters will not want to rank candidates. Especially in the current political climate where some Americans and political candidates deny the 2020 election results, the roll out of a new voting system in Alaska over two elections could highlight whether changing voting systems will help temper partisanship and increase voter trust, or whether voting changes will be vulnerable to election denial and distrust.

The Alaska special election results seem to demonstrate both how a change in voting systems can result in surprising victories and be vulnerable to partisan motivations. At the end of August, Democrat Mary Peltola won the special election after voting moved into a second round. At the end of the first round, Republican Nick Begich was in third and was cut from the race. His voters’ second choices were then tabulated, and while Republican Sarah Palin had more of those than Peltola did, enough of Begich’s voters ranked Peltola second, pushing her past the 50% threshold. Peltola is the first Democrat to represent the state since 1972, a state that has voted for the Republican presidential candidate 93.8% of the time since 1960, and 100% of the time since 2000.

While a sizable majority of Alaskans supported the voting system, and 66% of voters actually ranked candidates in the election, prominent politicians have called into question the legitimacy of the voting system, claiming that it is a system that benefits the Democratic Party. Notably, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton tweeted that “60% of Alaska voters voted for a Republican, but thanks to a convoluted process and ballot exhaustion—which disenfranchises voters—a Democrat ‘won.’” This kind of political criticism could hardly be unexpected, especially in the current political climate. However, the criticisms come at a vulnerable time for the electoral system in Alaska; if voters believe these claims are accurate, their trust that their vote counts or that their election laws are fair will decrease. Voters across the U.S. show a decrease in confidence in the democratic system. Distrust in the fairness of election laws and systems is dangerous for democracy, and new changes like those in Alaska are perhaps the most vulnerable.

The 2022 Alaska midterm election in November is the same cast of candidates as the special election. It will be interesting to see if the attacks and critiques on the system will result in fewer Alaskans participating or adhering to a system that is theoretically meant to boost confidence in their election system. If fewer voters rank candidates on their ballots (i.e., opt to pick only one candidate like a traditional ballot), or even decide not to vote at all, it could indicate that partisanship is still a strong factor in voter choice, and that the efforts to ameliorate polarization and distrust are up for a difficult battle.

Alaska’s Gubernatorial Recall Laws After #RecallDunleavy

Election Law Society · February 7, 2022 ·

By: Ellie Halfacre

The only recall petition filed against the state’s governor in Alaska’s history was unsuccessful. When looking at the history of gubernatorial recalls in the United States, this is unsurprising: four governors have faced recall elections, and only two have ever been recalled.

In July 2019, Recall Dunleavy campaign organizers hoped to change that. After one year in office, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy used his veto power to cut $444 million from the state’s budget. This move, which would have defunded the state’s university system by 41 percent and reduced Medicaid funding, led to a “political mess” among legislators. In response, Alaskan citizens began a petition campaign to recall Gov. Dunleavy from the governor’s office.

Ninth Circuit Brings Out-of-State Donors In From The Cold

Election Law Society · November 22, 2021 ·

By: Ellie Halfacre

When Wes Keller ran for re-election to the Alaska House of Representatives in 2015, his brother-in-law David Thompson tried to support his candidacy and donate $500 to the campaign. However, due to §15.13.072(e)(3) of Alaska’s elections statute, he was unable to do so. Under this law, Keller’s campaign had already received the maximum dollar amount it could accept from nonresidents—$3,000—according to the state’s restrictions on campaign contributions. Thompson, a Wisconsin resident, sued, challenging Alaska’s campaign finance laws under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

The law that barred Thompson’s donation, §15.13.072, specified several fundraising limitations on out-of-state donors: candidates could not accept more than $20,000 a year from nonresident donors for gubernatorial campaigns, $5,000 a year for state senate campaigns, and $3,000 a year for campaigns for state representative, or municipal or other office.

To Vote or Die: How the Indigenous Peoples of Alaska Fought an Impossible Choice

vebrankovic · November 16, 2020 ·

By Sayo Ayeomoni and Cameron Newton

When a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic that cloaks the world in uncertainty, upends the financial status of millions, and causes the death of roughly 239,000 Americans reaches an election cycle, it becomes a given that practices created for and enforced in times of normalcy be adapted for such extreme circumstances. Given that voting procedures are developed on a state-by-state basis, fifty different approaches to voting in a pandemic have necessarily been developed. Since thirty-four states are allowing voters to obtain an absentee ballot either due to coronavirus-related fears or without providing an excuse, rules about how those absentee ballots are filled out have naturally come into question. In Alaska, those questions have emerged with great focus centered on the Indigenous peoples who make up 15.6% of the state’s population.

Alaska Superior Court Allows the State Democratic Party to Let Independent Candidates Run in Party Primaries

Election Law Society · April 6, 2018 ·

By: Grace Greenberg-Spindler

Creating coalitions between independents and major political parties widens the opportunity for independents to participate in the political process. In Alaska an independent candidate must submit a filing notification and collect petition signatures, the number of which varies by level of office. Additionally, independent candidates are blocked from accessing the tools of state-recognized parties such as the Alaska Democratic Party (“ADR”) and the Alaska Republican Party. Rule AS 15.25.030(a)(16) requires “primary election candidates to be registered members of the party in whose primary they run.”