The Juneau Assembly this week opted to delay its decision on whether to adopt ranked choice voting for local elections. Rather than voting on the proposal later this month, Assembly members agreed to hold off until November — after the city’s upcoming municipal election on Oct. 7. Enacting the ranked-choice voting system could invigorate the conservative base in advance of the elections.
The ordinance under consideration would introduce ranked choice voting for municipal elections beginning in 2026. Under this system, voters rank candidates in order of preference rather than selecting just one. It is already in use for Alaska’s statewide elections, having been implemented in 2022, though it has faced a repeal effort that almost succeeded in 2024, and a current repeal effort.
Assembly member Ella Adkison, who introduced the ordinance, has been a vocal advocate for its adoption. But members of the public pushed back on the idea that such a radical change should be made without a public vote.
Public testimony on the ordinance is still scheduled for Aug. 18. If approved, Juneau would become the first major city in Alaska to adopt ranked choice voting for its municipal elections. Anchorage Assembly is also considering enacting the irregular voting system that it, too, would enact via ordinance.
Rank choice voting, the darling of deceivers since its inception, is sure to create more distrust and apathy among voters that are more disillusioned every year. You don’t fix anything by more complication. One person, one vote.
In polite society, ranked-choice voting is called cheating.
You can select just one and it will count, If that got changed then it was done recently Anchorage here is your chance to redeem yourself
There might be some concern in Juneau that the RCV might allow folks other than far-left, eco-freak and union candidates to win elections. We can’t have that – can we?