Ditch and pitch: Alaska Republican Party passes resolution to end ranked-choice voting in November

The Alaska Republican Party, during its quarterly meeting that took place in Fairbanks on Saturday, passed a resolution that recommends Alaskans vote “Yes” on Ballot Measure 2, which would restore the voting procedures that were in place before voters approved ranked-choice voting methods in 2020.

Alaska has been part of a push by Outside dark money coming from groups like UniteUs.org and FairVote.org to get ranked-choice voting in place in every state. These groups understand the Republican voters, many of whom are not inclined to rank candidates. Ranked-choice voting favors the more malleable Democrat voters who will do so.

The ballot measure that Alaskans will be voting on in November came about through a citizens’ petition drive that was able to get over 36,000 signatures from Alaska voters who want the ranked-choice voting system to go away.

Alaska Ballot Measure 2, Repeal Top-Four Ranked-Choice Voting Initiative:

A “yes” vote supports eliminating the top-four primaries and ranked-choice voting general elections in Alaska, which were adopted in 2020, and establishing a party primary system.

A “no” vote opposes eliminating the top-four primaries and ranked-choice voting general elections in Alaska, which were adopted in 2020.

With the open primary established by voters in a dark-money initiative 2020, voters who are registered with parties no longer have the ability to choose who their party’s candidate is to advance to the general election.

This year, only the second time ranked-choice voting has been used in Alaska, the Democrats have a felon on the general election ballot for the congressional seat. That felon may handcuff the party’s ability to get Mary Peltola reelected.

In fact, while the Alaska Democratic Party has thrown its full support behind ranked-choice voting, it also now says that it is being harmed by the system.

Democrats sued the Division of Elections because the division director correctly placed felon Eric Hafner on the final-four November ballot for Congress. The November ballot will allow voters to rank Hafner along with the others — Peltola, Nick Begich, and John W. Howe.

The Democrats lost their case in Superior Court, so appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court, where they were crushed by the court’s decision to uphold the Division of Elections’ decision.

The Alaska Republican Party is the political home for 143,000 registered voters in Alaska who, before 2022, were able to choose someone who best represented their values in a primary system that allowed Republicans or any voter not signed up with another political party to vote the Republican primary ballot.

Since the Democrats successfully destroyed the party primary and made it a jungle or “garbage” primary, August’s primary voter turnout was the third-lowest in 50 years. Democrat promoters of ranked-choice voting are minimizing that turnout by saying it was a boring election.

But the “boring election” for Democrats turned into an electrifying election quickly, as the party of slavery defenders fought and lost in court to have the results of the election overturned by judges, in order to favor Peltola.

The Democrat Party leaders want to have their cake and eat it too, as demonstrated by their willingness to game the election system, not just this year through costly court appeals, but even in 2022, when ranked-choice voting first started.

Al Gross, who had been the party’s nominee for U.S. Senate in 2020 under the regular voting system, filed as an independent candidate for Congress in 2022, and he had the support of the Democrats.

But then Gross finished ahead of Mary Peltola in the special election, and so Democrats forced him out so they could support Peltola, who is a registered Democrat. He was third and she was fourth, but it was Al Gross who was strong-armed out by the party, because even though the party had supported Gross, it had an actual registered Democrat in Peltola.

The Democrat Party was playing games with ranked-choice voting in 2022 by forcing Gross to drop, and then two years later, the Democrats sued over the results of the primary because they once again want to game the election system.

The Alaska Republican Party has said the ranked-choice voting system in Alaska makes the state the laughingstock of the nation because the system allows Democrats to do what they do repeatedly: Strong-arm candidates and file lawsuits if they don’t get their way.