By L. KATHRYN HOLMSTROM
I would like to address the problems that the ranked choice voting election system has created in the great state of Alaska.
This system was initiated by Alaskans for Better Elections. The organization was given an immense amount of dark money from organizations from outside of our state to ensure that RCV would be implemented statewide. We became aware of how awful this system was when it impacted our 2022 election.
As a resident of Alaska for over 35 years, I would like to list a few of my concerns with the ranked choice voting system:
- There is a jungle primary, which has numerous problems. One of the problems is that there is no vetting. This opens the door to fraud and manipulation of the system. This recently came to light when a convicted felon incarcerated in New York placed his name on the ballot to run against Mary Peltola as the Democrat candidate.
- One person is not selected for the party during the primary vote. This results in the vote being split out if you have two people of equal likability and similar views on the issues. This can occur whether you are Republican, Democrat, or Independent.
- Because of the complexity of the system, there is a long delay in receiving the results. I remember knowing the results in 24 hours prior to ranked-choice voting, while now it is three weeks or more. This again opens up a door of opportunity for fraud.
- Many of the ballots were trashed in the 2022 election, because the people did not understand how to vote. If you have to send out instructions and pay for commercials to tell people how to vote, you do not have a user friendly system.
- Recently we have been bombarded by commercials for “No on 2”; their intent is for the Ranked Choice Voting System to remain in place. The commercials, again, are being initiated by Alaskans for Better Elections with outside dark money. They tried everything, to try to keep the repeal of ranked-choice voting off the ballot in 2024; even taking it to the Alaska Supreme Court, so that Alaskans would not have a voice as to whether they would like to keep RCV or return to the traditional closed election system that we have used for hundreds of years. They lost the battle in court, so now they are using $4.3 million in dark money they received in August to tell us that we don’t want dark money used in our state to influence our election. This is the definition of deception.
The bottom line is: Don’t fall for their attempt to deceive and confuse; vote YES on Ballot Measure 2.
L. Kathryn Holmstrom is a concerned resident of Alaska.
