Alaska’s open primary, ranked-choice voting system: So slick it put a felon on Nov. 5 ballot for Congress

104
Eric Hafner

The open primary, ranked-choice general election has delivered for Alaska: Thanks to the new system, Eric Hafner is one of two Democrats who will appear on the November general election ballot for Alaska’s congressional seat.

Twelve people were on the primary election ballot. The top four are supposed to appear on the general election ballot.

But Hafner came in sixth, even though his address is a storage unit in South Dakota.

His actual residence is a federal prison where he is serving 20 years for making serious bomb threats and other murder threats, extortion, and bribery. The 467 votes for him from Alaskans may have simply been Democrats protesting the waffling and weak performance of Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola, who holds the seat for Alaska. And yet, even as the fifth-place candidate, he will still be on the November top-four ballot.

Alaskans voted in this system in 2020, persuaded by lawyers and operatives supporting Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who was no longer a viable candidate for the Republicans’ semi-open primary. They made it so that in 2022, she would not have to compete against a Republican to advance — she could advance with the help of Democrats.

The new election method, not used in any other state, was pushed and paid for by dark money from liberal billionaires outside Alaska, and the messaging was that better-quality candidates would be the result of the ballot measure that they bought and paid for.

With Alaska’s new system being used for the second time, the top four vote getters in the primary this year also proceed to the November ballot, regardless of party.

But with third-place Republican Nancy Dahlstrom and fourth-place Republican Matthew Salisbury dropping after the primary, that means the fifth- and sixth-place vote getters will appear on the general election ballot.

Hafner, whose candidate bio for the Alaska Division of Elections can be found here, got less than half a percent of the vote, and AIP candidate John Wayne Howe squeaked out a little more than half a percent, yet both now will advance. Together, they represent 1,088 votes of the 108,906 ballots cast — about 1% between them.

This means Peltola, who won over 50% of the vote in the primary, could see votes peeled off by Hafner, who is slightly to her left politically.

The Alaska Democrats are on record supporting this system of voting and are working to preserve it as Alaskans are trying to repeal it in November. Again, the same dark money is coming into the state to protect it and the Democrats who support it.

The U.S. Constitution only says congressional candidates must be at least 25, and must a U.S. citizen for seven years. If elected, the candidate must then be a resident of that state after the general election. This is the same way that Hillary Clinton became a U.S. senator for New York, even though she was not a resident when she ran. (Article 1, Section 2).

Alaska often sees people from outside the state file for federal office. But being a candidate from prison outside the state and advancing is a new twist, brought to Alaska by the open primary, ranked-choice general voting scheme.

Hafner has a long history of political activism. Between July 2016 and May 2018, while residing in the Mariana Islands to escape the long arm of the law, Hafner made threats to numerous individuals located in and around Monmouth County, N.J. and elsewhere. According to the Department of Justice, the victims were elected officials, judges, police officers, attorneys, and their families. Hafner sought to extort $350,000 from some of his victims. Hafner also made false bomb threats to an elected official’s office, a county courthouse, a police department, two law firms, and a business.

In 2018, Hafner ran for Congress against Democrat Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon’s 3rd congressional district, and in 2016, he sought the nomination to represent Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district, and won 44% of the vote. He called himself a Hawaiian nationalist and an advocate for marijuana and criminal law reforms. He did not live in either of those localities when he ran for Congress. He was essentially homeless in 2018, he reported then, as he was trying to evade arrest.

Read about the bomb threat case at the Department of Justice at this link.

104 COMMENTS

  1. Hafner sounds like the typical Democrat.
    I can see why he made it to the final round coming Nov. 5th.
    I am fine with him peeling a few votes away from Grifting Mary.

    • Hafner might be husband material for Peltola. They have similar political views and probably share many Democrat values. He can stay in prison and Mary can make lots of conjugal visits. His nice little abode in South Dakota should serve Mary perfectly, where she will have access to tribal health care and bingo.
      .
      Go NB3!!!

  2. so I guess there will be two felons on the ballot. Personally I think the more people that are willing to participate in government the better. You do not have to vote for them. Choice is good.

    • This puts you on the record for saying it’s ok for Trump to be president, even if he has 34 felony convictions. Noted.

      • Lol, it’s more clearly saying we have reached a new low, when it’s possible for a 34 time convicted felon (who is STILL facing more felony convictions) to be elected. Just pathetic.

  3. Every legal registered voter could contact the Division of Elections about this. Overwhelm them.
    What else can be done to make any sort of valid difference?

  4. Oh what irony!
    The AK democrats get to vote for a real felon!
    To late to make him drop out too!
    All joking aside, I hope this illustrates how idiotic RCV is and we motivate our neighbors and friends to go vote to get rid of this thing once and for all!

    • DJT is also a real felon! Convicted 34 times at this time. Will probably be many more when the final count is in.

        • What Republican Party? Call it like it smells…a CULT. A very low IQ CULT. Alaska has nearly 60% undeclared registered voters. The CULT 30%+, Democrats 20%+. I’d say do the math but the CULTS IQ can’t handle it. Who’s the idiot in the Division of Elections vetting all the illegals trying to scam the RCV system? Can you say an “CULTIST”…Investigation warranted. I’m not a Democrat or Liberal but from the posts the majority of you folks are “Suckers and Losers” just like the felon DJT. Try using any common sense you might have instead and try reading Project 2025! There’s your autocracy in motion…morons!

          • “I’m not a Democrat or Liberal but from the posts the majority of you folks are “Suckers and Losers” just like the felon DJT.”
            .
            Tell us all you are a Democrat/leftist/globalist without actually saying you are a democrat.
            .
            “…you might have instead and try reading Project 2025!”
            Have you read it? Granted, it is 900+ pages in total, so that may represent too much effort for you, but try it. You might find out it is not the roadmap to tyranny you were led to believe.

      • Democrat kangaroo courts don’t count. Not much has happened on these cases as of late have they? Kinda lost some steam as more realize it’s an attack on a political opponent.

      • If the appeals court in NYC could actually be expected to do their job fairly, the entire conviction and all counts on the indictment would be tossed out.
        But, it is full of NYC leftists, so DJT will have to move it up at least one more level before he gets the entire circus overturned.

      • The guy who threatened to bomb people and have them “wake up in a burning house” is not the felon? The guy who went on the lam for years and was arrested in the Mariana Islands for making bomb threats is not the real felon, but the politically arrested, tried, and convicted ex-president is the “real” felon?

        If you are an average Democrat — and it appears you are — then we may as well say goodbye to this republic. It was nice while it lasted. Hello, banana republic.

        • Let’s not forget, the conviction against Trump required a “novel” application of a business law. (HINT: A novel application of the law means the charges are bogus.)

      • On further consideration, AFF, do you really deep in your heart believe that ANY of these lawsuits would have been brought, if DJT had simply chosen to remain an ex-president, spend the rest of his days playing golf and hanging with his family?? No of course not! He would have remained the ready-made boogeyman for everything the current officer holder and his side kick screwed up.
        So all this “felony” indictment hooey boils down to politically motivated persecution from the self-proclaimed “defenders of democracy”!

        • Coming from the party that tried to impeach Biden after admitting they had zero evidence beyond some Russian guy who lied, that’s hilarious.

  5. Hey Scott Kendall … Great outcome for all your efforts to force Ranked Choice Voting on Alaska. Put this in your pipe and smoke it!

  6. No. This is the fault of Republicans denying people a choice of their preferred candidate. When LG Dahlstrom withdrew this turd moved into the 4th spot.

  7. It is amazing how in America you lose your right to vote after being convicted of a felony—but you can run for public office? Alaska has a lot of probably unneeded laws, but think we need a new one concerning this issue

  8. Outstanding example of this corrupt angle on “voting”. The way to defeat the RCV scam is to only vote for the ONE candidate you want to win. Their trick to manipulating the vote is in the multiple choices they want people to make.

  9. For once, I agree with Must Read Alaska. Convicted felons should not be on the ballot.

    Please pass this message along to Donald J. Trump.

    • Why not?
      Where in AK law does it say a felon cannot run for, and win an elected seat? I will admit I am not fully versed in AK election law, but I am not seeing how he could have entered the race as a felon if it was against the law. The Division of Elections would have rejected the paperwork.

      • But it makes a good straw man for people who don’t comprehend rcv but also love a different felon running for office.

      • Fake convictions by racist Affirmative Action prosecutors, before corrupt Democrat judges, and Trump hating juries. You and your flunky ahole Democrats fool no one, Sebastian. Except maybe you.

        • There is a large flock of sheep who are easily led to believe anything the rulers tell them.
          The sky is falling and the climate will terminate everyone under the falling sky…. unless of course they follow their leader over a cliff first.

      • It took a “novel” application of the law to even get an indictment. Know what that means? It means the DA is full of it, and had to distort the wording and intent of the law to make it stick.

  10. FTA: ” … in 2016, he sought the nomination to represent Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district, and won 44% of the vote.” Methinks this guy is going to pull A LOT of votes from Peltola …

  11. Yet Trump’s is a convicted felon (besides being a murderer and war criminal… all legal of course)? But suddenly the Republicans are concerned about this guy. Hmmm…

    Partisans, HA! The most brainwashed and self-unaware people you’ll ever encounter. Funny.

    • It is interesting that you seem to be okay with having a convicted felon, who is currently in prison, nor an Alaskan resident at this time vie to represent you in Congress.
      Yet DJT is the evil of our times and should never be allowed to run…..
      You sound like the wizard of oz, who does not want anyone looking behind the curtain.

      Ditto to CBMTTek, would LOVE to hear details on that “war criminal and murderer” case.

      “It is bad enough that so many people believe things without any evidence. What is worse is that some people have no conception of evidence and regard facts as just someone else’s opinion.”
      Thomas Sowell

    • Do not leave out the serious crime He committed… remember when He tore the tag off his mattress?
      The one that says “Do not remove under federal penalty”

  12. What’s wrong with having a convicted felon on the ballot? I can’t wait to vote for one for president! 😁

    • Wait Dan – has President Trump been sentenced? Maybe he will be if the demons get their way. In that case, I would still vote for him. As for this felon that got on our ballots…Thanks Dahlstrom. Once again. :-/

  13. Well if you’re going to threaten judges & officials to clean up the country; New Jersey IS a good place to start.
    Maybe we should let him out of jail.

  14. Democrats will rank the blue. The criminal is number 2. The Democrats wants lots of these criminals voting for Democrats, including millions of illegal criminals sneaking into our country from the southern border.

  15. This is just one more example of just how low this society has devolved. AFAIC, Mr. Hafner would be just another Congressman if elected. He’d fit right in.

  16. I’m not a huge Trump fan and I probably won’t vote for him this time, didn’t vote for him the first time but I did the second time. For the low information contributors here that don’t understand the difference between an actual felony resulting in prison time and the politically expedient felony convictions from a leftist enclave and that are under appeal, have been called into serious question by anyone who isn’t a dyed in the wool communist, and SCOTUS has raised issue with…there is a difference. But keep cheering the banana republic that your leftist overloards wish to implement, you are after all a usefull cog.

    • “……..keep cheering the banana republic that your leftist overloards wish to implement……..”
      They will. They will take it to the edge, then over, then lament the horrors that result like everybody else………but will continue to blame everybody else. There will be no peaceful recovery from the end of this civilization.

  17. Hecant be as bad for Alaska as Peltola has proven herself to be.
    If I were a Democrat looking for a leader I could toss him a few ballots if they send as many as they did in 2020.

    • “………He cant be as bad for Alaska as Peltola has proven herself to be……….”
      He would be, but it doesn’t really matter anymore. The end of this republic, culture, and civilization is already over. We’re just waiting for the media to confirm it for us, and they will when the moment suits them and their financiers. I plan to vote for Mr. Hafner in Choice #3, after Misters Begich and Howe, and I will not vote for Ms. Peltola for Choice #4. I will leave that choice blank. The reality is that I’m not voting FOR any of them. I’m ranking the offered choices in order of descending evil or perceived calamity.

  18. He sure reads like he has experience that would attract the far left fringe vote. I can hardly wait.
    You would have thought someone, anyone, would have vetted the info in the election pamphlet before this.

  19. Christians, get up from your pews and VOTE Republican and repeal RCV.

    PS: Trump’s “felony convictions” are fake. The only thing not fake about Democrats is their desire to ruin our nation. Don’t let it happen. VOTE!

    • “…….Trump’s “felony convictions” are fake……….”
      They are not fake. They are examples of political and judicial corruption.

      • So… a guy who never had one felony conviction in his life now miraculously has over 90? It’s establishment hacks that rely on the media’s garbage and, people like yourself who consume it, that drives all of it. You should want someone who’s not a professional politician and, never accepted his salary when president. That would be Trump.

        • “…….people like yourself who consume it……..”
          I review it, not consume it.
          I voted for Trump in 2016 and will vote for him again in less than two months…….because?: he was the lesser of the offered evils in 2016, and he is the lesser of the offered evils today.
          His convictions were no fake. They were real convictions, and we might see if they end up overturned on appeal or not. These convictions were produced by a corrupt municipal court, and that occurred for political reasons. No fakes. It’s real, unmistakable corruption, and might very well produce some of the effects they were meant to produce. Every corrupt move, every lie, every manipulation are key in influencing voters to cast their ballots in the way desired, whether you’re Vladimir Putin, a major American network producer, a majore American newspaper editor, or a voter treating elections like a sporting event.

        • I meant “indictments”, not convictions. But, at this rate, the rigged system will try to nail him on all of it.

      • Jim. Google it if course.

        Did the jury and prosecution and defense make so many errors that it was a farce? My Pillow fraudster probably said it was a kangaroo court, and you believed him. If so, you got fooled. Trump supporters WANT to be fooled. It’s requires no critical thinking skills.

        • JB:
          When the DA uses a “novel” application of a business law to indict.
          When a Judge, who as a judge is prohibited from contributing to partisan political candidates, but does, is selected to oversee the trial. (Instead of the normal pull a name from a hat way NY uses).
          When the prosecution ignores discovery rules/requirements.
          When the defense is not allowed to call witnesses that will provide exculpatory testimony.
          When the primary witness for the prosecution is a felon convicted of perjury
          When a defendant with nation wide name recognition is only allowed to refuse 10 potential jurors in a district that is openly hostile to the defendant.
          When the juror instructions did not specifically state what felony was “intended” that elevated misdemeanors to a felony level.
          .
          When all of that happens, it is a kangaroo court. The indictment was ridiculous enough, but the trial itself? It was a farce, and if you, or someone you know suffered the same treatment you would be outraged.

        • “Google it” – well, that is a good funny that I have not read lately. Google, the leader in structuring and implementing misinformation and deleting truth.

    • “…….Republicans back a 34x convicted felon for the top position in America………”
      So do some of us non-partisans. Why? Like always, it’s a choice for the lesser of the offered evils, and the 34x felon from the NYC Kangaroo Court is exponentially less evil than the former California AG.

  20. Hafner is on the ballot only because two Republicans chickened out, leaving one Republican who has no previous experience or qualifications to be our lone Representative. Ranked-choice should have given us opportunity to vote for the most-experienced candidate. I was surprised how the far-right MAGA crowd united to destroy Ms. Dahlstrom’s chances. Republicans are again “eating their own.”

    • And the Democrats aren’t?
      Joe got kicked to the curb in the same manner as Al Gross did.
      They didnt wait for the DNC to pick a candidate.
      It was a “Venezuelan” style ballot configuration on their part.

    • Whine, whine, whine.
      Where was your outrage in 2022 when the Democrats did EXACTLY the same thing?
      What? Are you upset that the folks on the other side of the political aisle can play the same games?

    • Wow, that is fascinating, Mark and Jeff.
      But, what exactly does that have to do with this article in any way?
      .
      And, your assertion is totally meaningless without some citation. Got anything aside from your TDS to back it up?

    • “Yesterday, Trump revealed that he thinks the plural of “child” is “childs”.”
      And today I will reveal that the plural of demon is Democrats.
      You’re welcome for the vocabulary lesson.

  21. Really?? You gonna go there when the GOP has nominated a convicted felon and convicted rapist for POTUS? I guess MRAK just can’t resist publishing such stories, even when it opens them up to a broadside.

    Thankfully, neither felon will win their election.

    • Who on the ballot is a convicted rapist?
      .
      Ohh… wait. You mean the E. Jean Carroll thing? Nope. Rape was not a charge. Slander and libel were. In fact, the accusation of rape was secondary and did not have to be proven in court in order for Trump to be fined for libeling/slandering another person.
      No rape conviction.
      .
      But, why actually read past the headlines and FB posts and actually learn something. Instead, forge ahead and demonstrate ignorance. It is kind of fun to watch actually.

  22. The basic fault of the Alaska Democratic party, is they DIDN’T check/vet their candidate, whether it was because they didn’t take the time to check, double check and again triple check the background of the person or someone slipped up BIG TIME.. Checking means to check his background, reference and whatever else needed to be included. I’m sure next time, they won’t make that mistake again…Or at least I pray they won’t. We can’t allow such people to gain access to our candidate roster for ELECTIONS..

  23. Yes, let’s all blame the ranked choice voting system as the title to this article suggests.

    Let’s not the blame the dude that’s running though. Or his history of doing this in other states. Or that the AK Constitution allows non-residents to run.

  24. So with voter irregularity in Arizona, Texas and Minnesota has Alaska checked their Voters and found out which ones are illegal?

  25. Sounds like the Alaska Democratic Party is whining a bit. THEY brought about Ranked Choice Voting and THEY are the ones who orchestrated for ONLY one democrat to run in a race, but now that the tables have turned, “Feel sorry for us?” Good luck with that. If our judiciary system decides in their favor, ALL of the good citizens of Alaska should vote “non retention” on the judges as a whole and start over with a new way of being able to vett and send people to those positions and NOT through the legal garbage that is presently done. PUT THEM ON NOTICE! Because the judicial system is corrupt they may just do that.

  26. So, two of the top four winners drop out, truly marginal candidates take their places, and you blame the voting system or the Democrats? That’s like blaming a hammer for not working when someone uses one to try to drive in a screw. The strategy of dropping out of the race so there’s only one Republican left only makes sense if you think voters are incapable of grasping the simplest fact about the voting system, that if they rank all the candidates they like (presumably the ones from their party) above the ones they don’t, they won’t split the vote, the votes will end up being transferred to the most popular candidate of that party. This seems like willful refusal to understand how to use a tool because it was more skillfully used by your adversaries last time.

  27. “………This seems like willful refusal to understand how to use a tool because it was more skillfully used by your adversaries last time………..”
    That’s exactly correct, but their tactic this time is an attempt to more skillfully use the corrupt system to their advantage. And it might work.
    I doubt this race goes to the second level of ballot counting. Either Begich or Peltola will likely gain >50% + one vote in the first round, thus the tactic of other Republican candidates dropping out might work, and ranked choice was rendered mute.
    If so, and if Begich wins, we will see this as a regular feature until Murkowski is finally dumped and/or Democrats figure out that RCV doesn’t help them anymore.
    Welcome to the Theory of Evolution, which includes corruption along with everything else. Back to the drawing board with y’all………..

    • “…I doubt this race goes to the second level of ballot counting…”

      On this I agree. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) this will deprive voters of whatever public discussion between the original top four candidates there might have been, and gives the marginal ones that got promoted more of a platform. Also, it’s possible some people who might have voted for the drop-outs and ranked, say, Begich as their #2, might not vote. So the tactic could backfire.

      • It might not go to a second rounds in the Congressional race, but the others on the ballot will likely go two, potentially three rounds. State house and senate are important as well.

Comments are closed.