Alaska Congressman Nick Begich knows all about ranked-choice voting. He’s been through the process twice — once in 2022 and again in 2024. He’s had to explain it countless times to thousands voters both in Alaska and Outside.
On Monday, Begich filed a bill to outlaw ranked-choice voting in federal elections. Cosponsoring the bill is Congressman Abraham Hamadeh of Arizona, a Republican.
The Preventing Ranked Choice Corruption Act is intended to protect the integrity of America’s elections by amending the Help America Vote Act, and reversing the growing voter confusion and disenfranchisement with emergent RCV systems, which vary from state to state and county to county where they are being used.
“The nation does not need more uncertainty and confusion injected into the federal election process,” said Congressman Begich. “One person, one vote’ is a proven, tried and true method that is easy to understand, easy to audit, and quick to report. Experiments with our national election systems risk disenfranchisement of voters and lead to outcomes that do not represent the true will of the American people.”
President Donald Trump has also expressed strong opposition to ranked-choice voting and has advocated for its ban. He called it a “fraudulent joke” and “one of the greatest threats to democracy” in posts on TruthSocial and during his Anchorage, Alaska rally in 2022 he criticized the complicated voting method that had just gone into effect.
So far, 14 states have banned ranked-choice voting statewide and another 11 are in the process of banning it.
Congressman Hamadeh emphasized the dangers Ranked Choice Voting poses to election integrity nationwide.
“The same Democrat pawns who support allowing non-citizen voting without voter ID and same-day voter registration also want to turn our Democracy into a rank choice voting scheme,” Hamadeh said. “Their motives are clear – they do not want to help Americans vote – they only want to help corrupt politicians win.”
Three states use RCV in statewide elections — Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine.
Alaska’s new Repeal Now group is circulating a petition to repeal the ranked-choice voting used in Alaska.
“In Alaska, ranked-choice voting has led to a delay and lack of transparency,” said Bernadette Wilson, one of the sponsors of Repeal Now. “It’s added to voter confusion and disenfranchisement. This is why we are actively collecting a new round of signatures to repeal this convoluted system in November of 2026.”
Wilson added, “We know voters were deceived and we feel confident they will vote yes to repeal this time.”
NB is exceeding even the most optimistic expectations. Well done Sir.
Wow.
Begich is VERY much exceeding expectations.
He’s the real deal!
Senator Begich?
Genius move Nick! Keep up the great work!!
Nick Begich continues to impress me. He is doing a fantastic job.
Alaskans have proved more than once that they want rank-choice voting. This is just another cowardly attempt to undermine the will of Alaskans and our democracy, but this time by going over our heads. Why are Republicans so afraid of Democracy, Constitutional Rights, and Freedom? It’s becoming a theme.
There is no such thing as “our democracy.” This is a REPUBLIC. ALL the Founding Fathers spoke, at length, about the dangers of democracy, and of the majority overriding the rights of the minority.
And no, Alaskans do NOT want rank choice voting! The initiative establishing it was overwhelming funded by dark out-of-state money, as was the campaign against the initiative to ban it last year. But right will in the end prevail, have no fear of that.
These voting novelties and gimmicks are ONLY pushed by radical leftist forces, to undermine, corrupt, subvert and suborn honest elections.
If rank choice voting is so good, why hasn’t the People’s Democratic Republic of California adopted it? I’ll tell you why: because in that far-leftist extremist state, the powers-that-be know full well that it could only serve to moderate the far-left extremist element in that state. Here in Alaska, it serves to dilute and deflect the pro-freedom, anti-establishment vote, as it was designed to do here.
“A democracy is a political system in which the people periodically by majority vote at the polls select their rulers. The rulers then have absolute power to make whatever laws they please, by majority vote amongst themselves.
In a Constitutional Republic the people also by majority vote at the polls select rulers who make laws by a majority vote among themselves, but the rulers cannot make any laws they please because the Constitution severely restricts their lawmaking power.
The ideal of a democracy is universal equality. The ideal of a Constitutional Republic is individual liberty.
In this century, great strides have been made toward the goal of subverting our Republic and transforming it into a democracy. The foremost tactic of the subverters is subversion of language. By calling America a democracy until people thoughtlessly accept and use the term, totalitarians have obscured the real meaning of American principles of government. Writers of the Constitution were anxious to safeguard liberty against dictatorship, monarchy they called it. But their chief anxiety was to protect the country against democracy.”
Both of those political systems are subverted when the sort of chicanery that RCV engenders is the rule of the day.
Great comment. I’ve been saying for years that it started with the language. As more and more people kept repeating the word democracy, the more everyone thought it was true.
When the people that want rank choice voting only win when outsiders spend millions using fear and lies they win, not Alaskans. This was a game to manipulate voters in Alaska. It was money pushing Alaskans around. This is not “democracy” its screwing Alaskan voters with BS from the Democrats who otherwise can’t win in Alaska. Another “anonymous” person….who are you anyway? Obviously a democrat troll…
NB3 and NB2 are my heros. Love you both.
So you know you’ll lose the vote on rank-choice every time, and think Alaskans are too stupid to vote correctly. Got it. You just confirmed everything I said before in your own words. Thanks.
When your side spends 30x of outside money to our inside money on the campaign, yeah, we lose. You have to use deception, backed by $millions in outside money to cling to your power.
Hard to tell what they really want since a voting system without party primaries is fused to RCV. Looks like they don’t want RCV, but they do prefer a voting system without party primaries.
RCV suppresses voters. I was nonpartisan for decades and worked in Alaska elections for 6 years. RCV kept nonpartisans and anyone who wasn’t Democrat or Republican from voting in the 2024 presidential primary. Because of RCV, parties had to caucus in order to vote, so if you weren’t in a party, well, you were just not voting. Because of RCV, I had to join a party in order to vote in the 2024 presidential primary. This is the opposite of what proponents of RCV stated.
Indeed, adding more steps to any process causes more room for confusion, fraud and error. RCV opens our elections up to more confusion, disenfranchisement, fraud and error.
If you want more people to vote for, change the rules for people being qualified to be on the ballot.
We are a constitutional republic. I know do not know anyone who voted for it and that’s saying a lot.
Outstanding! RCV is a leftist scam, it’s wrong, it’s un-American and must be abolished from our elections. 🇺🇸
You can figure out how to file for a PFD without any problem, but you’re mystified by RCV?
It’s not about confusion. It’s about an attempt to keep political power in the hands of extreme party leaders instead of those of the more center-oriented citizenry.
People like RCV – that’s why they voted it in – twice. It’s the politicians that don’t.
Seeing rigged choice voting for what it is does not mean one is mystified. It isn’t voting. What problem do you have with simply casting a vote for your desired candidate? How is the computer shell game keeping any money out of the hands of ‘extreme party leaders”? Add also, who likes RCV except you? I do not know a single person, nor met or inquired of, which I have, who has any favor towards it. I personally believe the reason the last ballot measure to repeal it failed was because of the other debacle, ‘cheat by mail’.
Liz, I’m one who likes it.
When we have multiple candidates (as we should), it’s easy (for me) to pick my “last place / no way” choice. Then work up from there.
I also look forward to the day when those who oppose this method finally get wise and realize they can stack the deck with a suite of “can’t go wrong” candidates. What’s so hard about that? – uh, as long as democracy prevails?
What I can’t understand are those who proclaim: “…gee, this is too complicated for me…I’m just a nitwit who needs a binary choice…what do I do now??”
If you want multiple candidates, make it easier for candidates to get on the ballot. No need to open up voting for more confusions, fraud and errors.
If many more candidates are going to be placed on the ballot, it will be essential to replace simple plurality with a different voting method to reduce the increased vote-splitting. If you don’t like RCV, then you will have to use something else.
Funny how every far-leftist state and municipality refuses to allow rank choice voting, isn’t it?
Whidbey, don’t you ever get tired of being both dishonest and wrong?
I suspect that many more people dislike RCV than like it. What they really want is a voting system without party primaries, and this creates a dilemma for them. Very many wish they had the option to ditch the RCV, but keep a voting system without party primaries.
Brian–Spot on. Alaska used open primaries–then called blanket primaries–from 1947 through 2001. In 2002, Republicans tried vainly to reinstate open primaries, but were unable to. Then, of course, Alaskans voted for open primaries in 2020 and again in 2024. Why Republicans are now opposed to open primaries when they used to be avid protectors of open primaries, is a mystery to me.
Answer:
.
Lisa Murkowski.
If RCV is so easy to understand, why does it take a computer a month to calculate the results? Alaskans were duped into supporting it through $millions of outside deceptive campaign funds. RCV is intentionally confusing.
A computer can generate RCV results in minutes. It takes up to a month to calculate the results in Alaska due to the State’s liberal voting rules that allow ballots to trickle in long after Election Day.
A runoff version of a ranking method can be very cumbersome and slow because it is not precinct summable. If a runoff is necessary, all of the ballots have to be transported to a single location. This process is especially slow in AK which has a a massive geographic area with far-off remote towns and some with air travel being the only way to get in or out. Other forms of voting including some other types of ranking methods are precinct summable, and would be much quicker to tabulate than this version of RCV.
Nice pro RVC talking points regurgitation. Kinda funny how 15 states have flat out outlawed RCV.
Oh look. Conservatives don’t like something, so Whidbey blindly supports it.
.
And in another surprise news story, the sun rose to the east.
Absolutely brilliant move. Now if they can pass it.
Legislators submit bills either for show, or to go.
Begich (who I like) is a first term, bottom-tier, 1-vote, ineffective Rep. Don’t expect anything from this, except fist-pumping yeee-haws from constituents who don’t know better. But that’s OK – it’s what you gotta do to assert “something” that you did as a guy in his position.
I’ll say it again,
Nicholas is the best of the entire tribe. He’s the embodiment of the good Begichs.
Begich name has one US Senator and two US Representatives. Murkowski name has two US Senators and one Governor. If Nicholas is the good Begich and Lisa is the bad Murkowski, which Alaska family has the biggest last name?
Murkowski wins! Two US Senators trump’s two US Congressmen. One governor versus no governor gives Murkowski the advantage. We have two Republicans and Begich has two Democrats and one Republican. Even with Bad Lisa, Begich has Bad Nicholas. We only got beat once by a two bit little woman. Begich got beat twice. Hands down, Murkowski wins.
Every now and then Frankie’s light bulb really shines.
Brilliant move. Thank you, Congressman Begich!
Only Republicans are apparently too ignorant to understand how ranked choice voting works, and frankly the GOP’s real problem with RCV is they can’t force voters to vote party line for extremist candidates, rofl
I see the only people who want rcv are the ones who keep insulting everyone who doesn’t.
I used to want rcv, but not anymore.
I wish to change my mind, thus change what I vote for. That is democracy.
Sorry you are offended by me practicing my democracy. Please spare me the insults.
Who did you vote for in the 2024 presidential primary? Unless you were a democrat or republican, no one.
Conservatives understand EXACTLY how RCV works, and the reason for it. That’s why we are opposed to it.
Communists understand EXACTLY how RCV works and the reason for it to keep the same corrupt people in positions they do not belong in. There if fixed it for you.
I really like Nick Begich, but don’t agree with him on this issue. I don’t support using RCV, but banning RCV while continuing to use simple plurality voting, which does enormous harm to election integrity, is really blind and ignorant. And why the heck is he calling it the “Preventing Ranked Choice Corruption Act?!” As bad as RCV may be, I don’t see any actual corruption associated with it.
Without RCV, we would return to the old primary system, which would avoid the plurality you dislike. The general election would be reduced to only one candidate from each party.
AK could certainly continue to use a voting system without party primaries even after abolishing RCV, and this scenario would be a very positive development for AK.
The biggest problem with RCV is the open primary. There are no positives of an open primary, and I need look no further than 2022 when the democrats selected the republican candidate for senate.
Exactly the way it should be.
I’m fine with only one candidate from each party if that’s what parties want. They shouldn’t be forced to accept more than one if they don’t want that even under a top-x system.
On the other hand, no one should be fine with the losers of party nominations being blocked from running in the general as another party’s candidate or as an independent candidate. That is a corrupt special privilege and gatekeeper power no private organization should ever be given. Sore loser laws are simply corrupt! Whole US should abolish them.
This change necessitates reducing the increased vote-splitting problem by abolishing use of plurality voting. If we don’t agree to use RCV, which is fine by me since I don’t like it, then we should use something else to replace plurality.
It’s methodology can be easily corrupted.
No logical presentation is ever given by anyone who makes this claim about how it specifically can “be corrupted,” certainly not any more so than the typical plurality system with party primaries, which is very undemocratic and produces non-representative outcomes.
You don’t call millions in “outside” money corruption?
Begich, and perhaps more so Hamadeh, are referring to the voting method itself when they use the word “corruption,” not the effort to get it passed in AK. It does not cause corruption and isn’t correlated with it. It’s dishonest and it’s propaganda to use this term. Furthermore, there are other very different forms of ranking methods, some of which perform better than Hare RCV, and this bill ignorantly attempts to abolish all of them, which is government overreach.
Good move Nick. I’m 100% behind you.
Adios Lisa.
Begich for Senator?
I think he’d be great.
Dang, I always thought that the MRAK reader were all about limited federal government outreach, and now they are clapping to government outreach!
Article I Section 4 of the US Constitution states “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.” It’s not government outreach (whatever that is), it is literally spelled out in our constitution.
Why does that delegated power given to the Congress mean that they should force this particular policy on the states? Even if it has such power, limiting freedoms of states unnecessarily in this case is still anti-limited government.
RCV is power to the people, that’s why politicians hate it so much
Yeah they hate it, suuure,thats why they foisted it on us. Using heaps of Outside dark money it was touted to ban,but didnt
Go for it! I’m with Begich 100%. Getting the bill put together is one thing, and introducing it is another and making it go forward to the Senate is the fight and trying to get it popular enough to turn it into law.
Brilliant! The Nickster has done more in 100 days than what’s-her-name did in her entire term. Hopefully a day will come when her name is mentioned and the response will be, “who?” Until then, RCV needs to be abolished completely It’s easy when your side is winning because of RCV to say that those who don’t understand it are ignorant. I remember second graders calling other kids in class, “stupid.” Doesn’t work for adults. Dems have spent millions explaining how RCV works, they spent millions to get it passed and they’ve spent millions defending it. Follow the money. Alaskas know a flimflam when they see it. It will be a grand day when RCV is overturned and Scott Kendall is run out of town on a rail.
Re: “It’s easy when your side is winning because of RCV…”
RCV is just an election method, so how does someone win “because of RCV?” Candidates win or should win because they are preferred over others by voters. You are suggesting RCV allows candidates to often win elections they otherwise would not. The Peltola win via spoiler scenario is a very rare exception for RCV, and such failures are more likely under the simple plurality method.
Congressman Hamadeh is a male and he co-led the bill.
Please correct!
Down with rank choice voting, as usual whidbey is showing his crooked side.
RCV is a ongoing effort to control our elections on the part of dems. Lisa Murkowskis role is among the most corrupt example we have seen in our states young history. She knows full well if Begich goes after her seat ‘28 shes toast in a straight up primary.
Good luck getting the RINO officials on board, they’re worse than the corrupt democrats! Going federal is a prudent strategy now at least.
Alaska would have ditched RCV in the last ballot attempt if the initiative had been worded more simply. Which begs the question, was the lawyers’ wording intentionally misleading? I think that’s very possible and probable!
I knew how to vote but a few folks asked me how to vote to ditch RCV, so undoubtedly many folks voted contrary to their desired objective.
The amendment is horribly written, and it unnecessarily bans ALL forms of ranking. This is far too restrictive, as other ranking methods besides Hare RCV (e.g., Ranked Robin) may perform quite well. This is thus a case of massive over-reach by government.
Look, I am a republican voter. Are we really going to collectively skim over the fact that Matthias was fined heavily for his mishandling of financial disclosures and faith-based wrongdoings ($100k in fines). It’s easy to cry that the other side had outside money, but the “inside money” of Alaska on this issue was very corrupt too. Unfortunately Alaskan voters have decided 2Xs that they want RCV, if I stand by my convictions as a republican I have to honor that decision. I think we need to have a different discussion about this and not diminish the last two outcomes of the vote.
Re: “Alaskan voters have decided 2Xs that they want RCV”
It’s not quite that straightforward. I suspect that many more people dislike RCV than like it. What they really want is a voting system without party primaries, not so much RCV, and this creates a dilemma for them. Very many wish they had the option to ditch the RCV, but keep a voting system without party primaries.
Wrong….follow the money….a group of communist activists rammed RCV down our throats! I hope you eventually see the light…
Boise State did a survey of Idaho citizens and found that 58% of Idahoans backed the concept of a Top-X system while only 34% of Idahoans surveyed supported ranked choice voting.
Wow. Great that an elected representative of the people of Alaska is sponsoring legislation to ban what a majority of voters supported (twice).
Follow the money…communist activists rammed RCV down our throats…I’m so sick of this communist activism, it’s flat un-American!
What a majority of wealthy outside democrats bought twice.