Editor’s Note: This story was corrected on 11/25/25 to reflect the fact that Juneau residents showed substantial support for RCV when the Repeal RCV initiative was on the ballot in 2024.
At the City and Borough of Juneau’s most recent Regular Assembly Meeting, assembly members rejected only one ordinance under consideration: the implementation of Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) for local elections.
The ordinance, proposed by Assemblymember Ella Adkison, asked for RCV to be applied to single-member races beginning with the October 6, 2026 municipal election. The ordinance went through several checkpoints over the past seven months before the final Assembly vote on November 17. Citing bad timing due to budget cuts and layoffs, Adkison motioned to table the ordinance indefinitely.
Although Alaskans have split opinions regarding RCV (evidenced by the rejection of the 2024 Repeal RCV initiative by a slim margin of 743 voters), Juneau residents show keen interest in implementing the voting system. Although the ordinance is dead for now, a new Assembly may put it back on the table.
The Assembly considered 3 other ordinances and 1 resolution at the November 17 meeting. All of these were passed by the Assembly. Please see the Notice of Adoption below to learn about CBJ Assembly’s most recently passed legislation.
A very slight glimmer of conservative action in tabling the RCV.
What conservative action?
The ordinance was tabled due to “…Citing bad timing due to budget cuts and layoffs, Adkison motioned to table the ordinance indefinitely….”
The RCV repeal BM#2 in 2024 in Juneau district 4 went down in flames. 6,599 against BM#2 versus 2,285 for. The district 3 split between Haines, Juneau, and Skagway was equally against repeal… 6,794 against and 3,840 for.
Juneau LOVES RCV when it makes sense. In non-partisan municipal elections it makes no sense.
SMART MOVE !!!!
Good! Now, do away with it for ALL elections!
“Juneau voters have split opinions regarding RCV, evidenced by the rejection of the 2024 Repeal RCV initiative by a slim margin of 743 Juneau voters.”
-Natalie Spaulding
False.
As the link you provided shows, that was the STATEWIDE margin on a STATEWIDE ballot measure.
Juneau voters in that election broadly SUPPORTED retaining RCV.
Kindly correct your error.
Hello Dan, thank you for engaging with our content! And thank you for pointing out this error. It has been corrected.
Dan saying that “Juneau voters in that election broadly supported retaining RCV.” leads to a question:
.
Is it a fact that Juneau voters broadly supported retaining RCV, or were they simply told that they broadly supported RCV by unelected officials who might have vested interests in forcing RCV into an already non-transparent election system?
.
Might be a good beginning for your possibly Pulitzer-winning series on election integrity in Alaska, no?
As a Juneauite, it’s mix of the two.
Bravo, and thank you for the journalism.
The capital should be moved to Anchorage
As long as Anchorage keeps electing the people it elects, the capital could be in your back yard and the results will be the same
Isn’t there still a law on the books (from a 1970’s era ballot measure) to move the capital somewhere along the railbelt between Anchorage and Fairbanks?