The Juneau Assembly is scheduled to decide Monday whether to implement ranked choice voting (RCV) for municipal elections, potentially making the city the first major Alaskan municipality to adopt the system locally. The vote on Ordinance 2025-13(c) comes after months of deliberation, with a public hearing set for 6 p.m. at Centennial Hall or via Zoom, allowing residents to weigh in before the final decision. If passed, the ordinance would take effect January 1, 2026, applying to single-member races where voters rank candidates by preference, aiming to ensure winners have majority support through sequential tabulation rounds.
The proposal, initially advanced by the Assembly’s Committee of the Whole in June, has sparked debate over its impact on voter representation and election processes. Under RCV, ballots are counted starting with first-choice votes; if no candidate reaches over 50% of active ballots, the lowest vote-getter is eliminated, and their supporters’ next preferences are redistributed until a majority emerges. Proponents argue it encourages diverse candidacies and reduces negative campaigning, while critics question its complexity and timing amid concerns about election trust.
Assembly member Ella Adkison, who proposed the change, emphasized its benefits for competitive races. Opposition has highlighted potential drawbacks. Recent voter sentiment in Juneau leans supportive, as locals rejected a statewide RCV repeal effort that failed narrowly last year.
If adopted, initial first-rank results would mirror state practices, but full tabulation might delay final outcomes by days, according to Deputy Municipal Clerk Andy Hirsch. The ordinance aligns with systems in cities like New York and San Francisco, marking a shift from Juneau’s traditional single-vote method. Assembly members will consider public input before voting, with the outcome shaping future local contests.
For details on how to participate: https://juneau.org/assembly/assembly-calendar?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D179175006
An elected assembly reflecting to the state as a whole what “Dumb to Dumber” looks like.
RCV is a stupid process and only creates fixed results that are preplanned.
People that are pitching RCV are total idiots
What the hell is wrong with one person, one vote?
STOP screwing around with a proven process. One person one vote.
Fix the budget, stop crime, stop the homeless instead of jacking around with voting.
LEAVE THE VOTE SYSTEM ALONE
STOP IT — NOW
One person– one vote
Let’s see here, we have uncontested races since no one wants to run, it will add a lot of cost, it will take longer and it will confuse voters. What’s not to like? 😂
Shouldn’t it be We The Voters that decide on RANK Choicce Voting?!?!?!?! It’s AWFUL!
Good grief. Why would any sane city leadership want to be like New York or San Francisco? Why is not simply voting for your candidate of choice not satisfactory? RCV is nothing but chaos and sleight of hand but of course chaos is a primary tool of the left so expectantly they would promote the wacky system that is essentially chaos. How exactly does RCV lessen negative campaigning? How does it encourage ‘diverse’ candidates? Of course neither of those claims hold any water and are simply gas lighting, of which the left are experts at. So sad that our state capital is over populated with wacky deluded people many, if not most, whom have transplanted from failing NW communities with the same wacky values.
The worst thing that ever happened to Alaska is this rotten (Rank) choice voting baloney. There is nothing fair about this scam. Conservatives and independents need to fully understand why this is such a scam. It has mainly allowed for the democrats to run a spoiler/syphon candidate who participates in an election and draws votes away from a major candidate with similar views, potentially changing the election’s outcome. This often leads to a situation where a less popular candidate wins due to the division of votes among similar candidates. I don’t suppose anybody noticed how John Howe, a complete unknown seem to have lots of money to campaign against Begich in the last election. He was funded by, “Vote Alaska Before Party” & “House Majority Pac” both are liberal super pac that claims to be independent. Rotten choice passed originally by a very narrow margin and the 1st attempt to repeal it was defeated by a very narrow margin as well. Please don’t fall for this scam Juneau
As a political scientist I find this system highly flawed. It is way too complicated for the average voter as it is too complicated and obtuse even for me. Many people will vote as they have and not rank choices as part of their vote. Therefore a candidate that initially trails a leader who has less than 50% of the total vote can campaign to get voters to rank him high. Politics, hence, plays a critical role in this system just like an extra election to get a winner over 50% – as in Georgia. In my view their last Senatorial election was a partisan travesty as was Alaska’s last Senatorial election which elected Murkowski. Maine has very similar problems. Agreed that new runoff are low turnout but this monstrosity solves nothing. Let the candidate with the most votes win and end the electoral foolishness.
If you want one party rule, with no opposition, go for it. Become just like New York, Portland, or San Francisco.
Does democrat Juneau really need RCV? Juneau is already a socialist nightmare.
Anyone voting in favor of this evil deserves the evil that befalls them.
Overall, Heritage views RCV not as a genuine reform but as a manipulative scheme that benefits fringe candidates and special interests over traditional democratic principles.
For contrasting views, proponents like FairVote argue it promotes majority rule and reduces wasted votes, but Heritage dismisses these claims based on the evidence from implemented systems.
Ballot Exhaustion Rates: In Alaska’s 2022 special U.S. House election, over 11,000 ballots (about 6%) were exhausted and discarded. In the general election, over 15,000 (nearly 6%) were exhausted.
Non-Majority Winners: In Maine’s 2018 U.S. House election, over 8,000 ballots were exhausted, and the winner (a Democrat) had fewer first-choice votes than the Republican but won after redistributions.
Voter Error and Complexity: A cited 2015 study of 600,000 votes in four local RCV elections in California and Washington found high rates of incomplete rankings (nearly one in three voters didn’t rank multiple candidates), leading to exhaustion and winners without initial majority support.
Delays: New York City’s 2021 mayoral race took two weeks and eight rounds to finalize, with over 140,000 ballots exhausted.
Honest Elections Project Reacts to Supreme Court Accepting Election Day Ballot Receipt Deadline Case
November 10th, 2025|Latest News
Jason Snead, Executive Director of Honest Elections Project, released the following statement:
“The Supreme Court now has the chance to set the record straight: Federal law clearly says that ballots must be received by Election Day. Federal law has clearly established a federal ‘Election Day’ for most of our nation’s history. Despite this, some states continue to allow absentee ballots to pour in days or even weeks late. The Fifth Circuit has already ruled that late ballots cannot be counted, and this case gives the Supreme Court the chance to resolve that question once and for all.”
Honest Elections Project Reacts to Louisiana v. Callais Supreme Court Oral Argument
October 15th, 2025|Latest News
Jason Snead, Executive Director of Honest Elections Project, released the following statement:
“For years, the requirement to have majority-minority congressional districts has plagued courts and poisoned the redistricting process in legislatures across the country. Courts are reading the law to require racial gerrymanders to remedy racial gerrymanders. Race has no role in redistricting. The Supreme Court has an opportunity to get back to the basics and lay down a marker for race neutral redistricting in Louisiana v. Callais, and it is our hope that they choose to do so when the opinion is issued.”
Honest Elections Project Reacts to Bost Supreme Court Oral Argument
October 8th, 2025|Latest News
Jason Snead, Executive Director of Honest Elections Project, released the following statement:
“If political candidates don’t have standing to sue over illegal voting practices in their own elections, then nobody does. I was encouraged by today’s oral argument. The Court seems open to reversing the Seventh Circuit’s decision and allowing Congressman Bost’s case to proceed. For too long, courts have been open to left-wing organizations trying to strike down commonsense voting laws but closed to conservatives trying to protect election integrity. It’s time to correct that. Everyone has the right to have their case heard.”
RCV – magic that got both Murkowski and Trump elected, mathematical impossibility.
Tabulating computer fraud, nothing else.
Trump elected by RCV? You must be off your meds. No RCV in Federal elections. He won the POPULAR vote AND the Electoral college. It was fantastic.
Now Murky… that one WAS a win from cheating RCV. RCV in Alaska was designed for her to win back in the day. #dassygotmethisjob
RCV election of Senator Murkowski was no more a win by cheating than Governor Dunleavy’s win using RCV method.
Dump RCV!