The Alaska Supreme Court has upheld the election package known as Ballot Measure 2, which involves nonpartisan primaries and ranked-choice general election ballots, and a combined Governor-Lieutenant Governor ticket for the primary. Voters narrowly approved the massive voting changes pushed by dark money from Outside the state in 2020.
The court said it would later explain in full its decision to uphold a September ruling from the lower court.
The ruling casts aside the Alaska Constitution, which specifies how the governor and lieutenant governor shall be elected.
The Alaska Constitution says, “The governor shall be chosen by the qualified voters of the State at a general election. The candidate receiving the greatest number of votes shall be governor.”
The Constitution specifies the “greatest number of votes,” not a ranked-choice scenario for choosing the state’s executive officer.
Supreme Court in rapid time validated the dark money campaign by Scott Kendall, which may provide the Alaska Legislature with more motivation to act on election integrity bill offered by Gov. Mike Dunleavy and read across on Tuesday as House Bill 286.
The ballot measure was opposed by both Republican and Democratic parties in Alaska, which maintain they have a right to keep control over how they operate their party primaries.
