On the Kenai Borough ballot on Tuesday, voters will be asked to repeal an ordinance passed by the Borough Assembly that moves the entire borough to a mail-in ballot.
The confusion is that just four weeks later, voters in the state will also be asked to change up the way all Alaskans vote.
Conservatives say that Kenai should vote “Yes” in October and “No” in November.
Yes on Proposition 2 on Tuesday will overturn the mail-in-only voting that would go into effect in 2021.
But if they mistakenly vote Yes on Ballot Measure 2 in November, they will wreck Alaska’s model election system and replace it with a jungle primary and ranked-choice voting, a system being pushed by Outside wealthy progressives trying to take over Alaska’s election.
Several voters on the Kenai Peninsula have expressed confusion because both Proposition 2 in October and Ballot Measure 2 in November are being debated simultaneously.
The exact ballot language for Kenai voters is:
Shall Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly Ordinance 2020-24 “An Ordinance Amending KPB Title 4 Regarding Borough Election to Provide for Vote by Mail Elections, For More Time Between a Regular Election and Run-Off Election, and to Remove Proposition Statements” be repealed?
YES A “Yes” vote will repeal Ordinance 2020-24 and the ordinance will NOT become effective.
NO A “No” vote will NOT repeal Ordinance 2020-24 and it will become effective January 1, 2021.
The ballot language in November is only three paragraphs long, but represent 25 pages of complicated language that takes over the election system for Alaska:
This act would get rid of the party primary system, and political parties would no longer select their candidates to appear on the general election ballot. Instead, this act would create an open nonpartisan primary where all candidates would appear on one ballot.
Candidates could choose to have a political party preference listed next to their name or be listed as “undeclared” or “nonpartisan.” The four candidates with the most votes in the primary election would have their names placed on the general election ballot.
This act would establish ranked-choice voting for the general election. Voters would have the option to “rank” candidates in order of choice. Voters would rank their first choice candidate as “1”, second choice candidate as “2”, and so on. Voters “1” choice would be counted first. If no candidate received a majority after counting the first-ranked votes, then the candidate with the least amount of “1” votes would be removed from counting.
Those ballots that ranked the removed candidate as “1” would then be counted for the voters’ “2” ranked candidate. This process would repeat until one candidate received a majority of the remaining votes. If voters still want to choose only one candidate, they can.
This act would also require additional disclosures for contributions to independent expenditure groups and relating to the sources of contributions. It would also require a disclaimer on paid election communications by independent expenditure groups funded by a majority of out of state money.
Should this initiative become law?
That’s confusing.
But Brett Huber says it’s not that hard. On the November ballot, the director of Defend Alaska Elections says “Vote ‘No’ in November. It’s tNO-vember.”
In places across the nation, mail-in elections have been found to increase fraud, including ballots being discarded by U.S. Postal Service carriers, and others harvesting ballots and voting them illegally. In Alaska’s small communities, many races are won by fewer than 10 votes, which could prompt campaigns to start ballot harvesting techniques to increase their chances.
This language makes my head whirl – and English IS my first language. But lawyer-speak, is not. Vote Yes and it won’t be there, vote No and it will be there? WTF? I never expected to live in a parallel universe when I aged, where everything is upside down, and back to front.
1. The Postal Service is unreliable. Several months ago a friend sent a registered letter to a town in the Fresno, California area ( I know, it’s California; what else can you expect) that made it to Fresno but can’t be located beyond that point. He’s opened up a claim, spoke to the Fresno Postmaster, to no avail.
2. Under the current arrangement, those requesting a ballot have made enough investment of time/energy to follow up if it doesn’t arrive in the mail. If the mail-out to all proposal passes, marginal voters will now sit at home expecting the ballot to appear in their mail box. If it doesn’t they won’t be motivated to pursue the matter.
3. Wholesale mail-outs increase possibility of fraud. I foresee those who qualify but don’t otherwise vote selling their voter signature for a pittance.
Better idea- Make it state law that ballot propositions have to be ONE sentence of what it is in PLAIN ENGLISH with zero “by voting no, you’re voting yes” flim-flam.
That would be awesome. I’m tired of the trickery that goes into the proposition wording.
Ranked voting allows you to vote your conscious and not worry about weather or not someone can win or not. Party primaries are a waste anyway. How many times have you seen 6 republican candidates for governor run until the very end instead of quitting and throwing their support behind someone else? The result is usually a Rino being nominated. This ends the statist circus shenanigans.
So,if we want our election system to stay the same,we vote no?
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