Joke’s on you: Peltola’s ally Rep. Jamie Raskin files bill to force ranked-choice voting onto all the states

Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a mentor and ally of Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska, is a sponsor of legislation to force ranked-choice voting onto U.S. congressional elections for both the House and Senate — across all the states.

Raskin and Democrat Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia reintroduced their Ranked Choice Voting Act. Sen. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat, introduced mirror legislation in the Senate.

Rep. Peltola got to Congress due to the curiosities and quirks of ranked-choice voting in Alaska’s 2022 election, brought on by a dark-money ballot initiative that passed in 2020 in Alaska.

This year, voters in Alaska are being given the opportunity to unwind that legislation, which has been shown to be damaging to the state, particularly to the confidence voters have in election integrity. The system is so bad in Alaska that it even put an out-of-state Democrat felon on the ballot, which resulted in the Alaska Democrats suing over the system that they created with the intention of fooling voters.

Peltola is a close ally of Rep. Raskin. She joined Raskin’s “Democracy Summer” to train young people to be Democrat revolutionaries prepared to do battle should Donald Trump become president.

Raskin is on record saying he would stop Trump from becoming president by blocking his confirmation, and he’s been building the army of young Democrats to help him create “civil war conditions” if Trump wins in November.

The Raskin ranked-choice voting requirement would force ranked choice voting on all congressional primary and general elections starting in 2028. His legislation is being pushed by FairVote, the same dark-money group that convinced Alaskans to adopt the system.

With RCV, voters rank candidates, rather than pick one or another. If a candidate receives more than half of the first choices, that candidate wins. If not, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and voters who picked that candidate as ‘number 1’ have their votes redistributed and counted for their next favored choice. This process continues until a candidate wins with more than half the votes. It encourages people to soften their moral and political convictions and accept a less-than-ideal candidate because they “voted” for that people at some point in the ranking method.

In this method, people who rank may have their ballots counted more than once, while people who do not rank may have their ballots “exhausted,” punishing them for not ranking after the first round of counting if they did not choose the winning candidate.

Rep. Peltola supports ranked-choice voting. It was a major factor in her win as a Democrat in a conservative state.

Republican Nick Begich, who is challenging Peltola for her seat in Congress, opposes the scheme that was developed by liberals to divide and conquer the Republican-leaning slate of candidates.

“Ranked choice voting focuses American elections and campaigns on coalition-building,” said Rep. Raskin. “Our legislation incentivizes candidates to reach a broader range of the voting public, making our electoral process more democratic, more positive, more efficient and more representative—and our Congress too.” 

In fact, Peltola has voted 80% of the time with Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and when Peltola finds voting uncomfortable due to her conservative district, she just doesn’t show up for work or votes “present.” She has not been bipartisan in the way people remember Congressman Don Young being bipartisan.

But Sen. Welch says ranked-choice voting is more “equitable.”

“This pro-democracy bill will make our elections more equitable, more civil, and more representative,” Welch said, promoting the mythology around ranked-choice voting, not mentioning that Alaska Democrats have sued because the system they created has now worked against them.

“Ranked choice voting is the fastest-growing election reform in the nation because it works,” said Meredith Sumpter, President and CEO of FairVote, the group that is one of the leading funders of ranked-choice voting initiatives like Alaska’s.

She, Welch, and Raskin don’t talk about the tens of thousands of Alaskans signed petitions supporting a repeal.

Sumpter’s FairVote group doesn’t just want ranked-choice voting in all states. It also promotes abolishing the Electoral College, a move that would favor states with more population and more socialist governments and penalize states like Alaska, where there are fewer people but who are more libertarian in political leanings. Funding for FairVote comes from various George Soros-allied foundations, according to InfluenceWatch.org:

Laura and John Arnold Foundation,  Omidyar Network Fund,  Open Society Foundations (George Soros),  Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros Foundation,  Democracy Fund,  Tides Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Joyce Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Public Welfare Foundation, Soros Fund Charitable Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of  New York, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.

Some of these groups, such as Laura and John Arnold Foundation, were also top funders for the ballot initiative that changed Alaska’s voting to the open primary and ranked-choice general election that has been so problematic. During the past week, Democrats in Alaska have been suing to force a Democrat off of the November ballot.

Although Raskin and Peltola are in the minority in the House and this legislation is not likely to advance if the Republicans maintain control of the House of Representatives, it comes at a time when Alaskans are having serious doubts about open primaries and ranked-choice general elections.

Their doubts are increased because this November, a Democrat who is a felon serving time in an out-of-state federal penitentiary, will appear on the ranked-choice ballot for Alaska’s congressional seat — all because of the open primary system that doesn’t allow parties to vet their candidates.

Read the full text of the RCV Act here.