By ALEX GIMARC
Polling for repeal of the open primary-ranked-choice voting must be going in favor of repeal, as the anti-repeal side cranked up the rhetoric a couple notches last week.
This time around, they express their concern for Alaska military members who they claim will be denied their right to vote for a candidate of their choice should the repeal be successful.
Before the discussion, I want to remind readers that in addition to the road to a very hot place being paved with good intentions, we have the Samuel Johnson’s observation from April 1775 that “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”
The leftist pro-ranked-choice non-profits from outside the state are now wrapping themselves in the flag and professed love for military members stationed here in Alaska. Perhaps we need to take a look at their newest claim.
The claim is that a voter has to be a registered party member in order to vote for a candidate of that party. This, is at best, a half-truth and at worst another lie, as under Alaska Statute at the time RCV was passed (AK Stat 15.25.0606 (2019)):
(b) A voter may vote only one primary election ballot. A voter may vote a political party ballot only if the voter is registered as affiliated with that party, is allowed to participate in the party primary under the party’s bylaws, or is registered as nonpartisan or undeclared rather than as affiliated with a particular political party and the party’s bylaws do not restrict participation by nonpartisan or undeclared voters in the party’s primary.
Before 2019, state law allowed registered non-partisans or undeclared voters to vote in any party’s primary as long as that particular party did not restrict participation by non-partisans or undeclared voters in the primary. Neither the Republican Party nor the Democratic Party restricted undeclared or nonpartisan registrants.
Sounds like our Outside pro-RCV “friends” with $7.5 million to spend on ads are making it up as they go again, claiming that military members are somehow victimized by a requirement to declare they are something, anything before voting in the primary. Note that no such requirement exists for voting in the general election.
Once again, we are left with the question: If RCV is such a great thing, why are its supporters continuing to spew increasingly hysterical, fraudulent claims?
At this point they are either flopping around like a well-hooked Russian River red or simply tossing stuff against a wall trying to find out what sticks. Either way, it looks like their internal polling isn’t nearly as positive as they let on, as they’ve changed their story at least three times since ads started running.
You would think that a side with the massive spending advantage they currently hold ($7.5 million to $60,000) would at least get the messaging down correctly via focus grouping like they did in 2020.
Trouble in RCV-land? We can only hope.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
