L. Kathryn Holmstrom: Ranked-choice voting system has not worked well for Alaska

24

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.

24 COMMENTS

  1. 1. There was no vetting under the previous system. As many on the right say you can be RINO and in be in the Republican Primary, and actually win the general election as well.
    2. Splitting the vote, this is laughable as you need to get to 50% under RCV.
    3. Sometimes it takes time to count all of the ballots as mail in votes as the election is close.
    4. Please provide specifics, I don’t understand how people can’t comprehend listing your choice of candidates in order. 1, 2, 3, 4.
    5. The yes on 2 crowd was found to be in violation of state campaign finance laws by APOC, and it those fines were upheld by the courts.

    • 1. The vetting gets done in the primary.

      2. The splitting won’t matter w/out RCV.

      3. Mail-in ballots also provide for more fraud and should be banned. Absentee ballot rules should go back to what they were prior to Covid.

      4. If you can’t understand how people can’t understand, then you’re not able to solve the problem. The problem is solved by repealing RCV.

      5. Scott Kendall and his numerous BS lawsuits are hurting Alaska. Gotta’ wonder what he’s making by causing all this trouble w/RCV and education funding.

      6. Be on the right side of history and VOTE YES ON 2!

      • Splitting vote was a thing before RCV.

        In 2004 Murkowski won with 48% of the vote, in 2010 she won with 39.49% of the vote that was a write in win, so the primary did not matter, in 2016 she won with 44.36% of the vote. The only time Lisa Murkowski won with more than 50% of the vote was 2022 with RCV.

        Mail in ballots have been a thing in this state long before Covid, we are a no excuse absentee voting state.

        Either way RCV being repealed or not republicans in this state have to put up candidates that can win otherwise you end up with situations like Mayor Bronson losing reelection, or candidates like 6 time losing Liz Vazquez as the opposition to Claman. Vazquez came in third and had only two donations according to APOC that were not her own.

        As to Kendall, it’s his time, and money I don’t personally care if he has a case he has a case. The school voucher thing was even by our Governor said probably against our laws.

        You can vote the way you want, and it may very well get repealed the more I talk to my conservative neighbors the more I hear apathy on voting in November.

    • 1. There is vetting. At the bare minimum, a candidate in the primary has to be a member of the party, or approved by the party to show up.
      2. You obviously do not understand what splitting the vote means in this context.
      3. Yes. That is correct. But, the overwhelming majority of the time, the results on election night carry through. With RCV, unless a candidate gets 50%+1 vote, we have to wait weeks.
      4.
      5. So? A relatively minor financial violation happened. That proves zero about the validity of the yes on 2 statements.

    • AFF says: “1. There was no vetting under the previous system. As many on the right say you can be RINO and in be in the Republican Primary, and actually win the general election as well.”

      Given the democrat felon on the ballot, I’d note that vetting hasn’t improved under RCV. Yet you want to retain it?

      Note that sometimes, we on the right screw up the vetting. “Chicago” John Lindauer comes to mind. Cheers –

  2. I think ranked choice voting is a disaster for those that expect at their vote will change something. You should not rank any other candidates for second or lower choice. Choose your first place candidate and nothing else. The department of elections in Alaska has failed the people of Alaska by not explaining the implications of choice voting, or how other candidate selections are tabulated when the votes are counted.

    • They have failed the residents of Alaska many times in many elections. I would gladly testify to what I, myself, have witnessed while working them.

  3. Remember folks, whether you are on the ‘Yes on No’ side, or are on the ‘No on Yes’ side, the important thing is to get out there and vote vote vote !!!

  4. Voting YES on 2, and I can’t wait to do so. RCV has been a BS game that is bad for Alaska. The reasons listed in this article are spot-on!

  5. I worked at a polling place in 2022. There were more “spoiled” (unusable) ballots then than ever before. And more people who showed up to vote were unable to do so because they could not figure out how to mark the ballots for the candidates they favored. It was a big mess! Vote YES to repeal RCV!

  6. Ranked Choice Voting disenfranchised Alaskans, especially minorities. Fewer minorities voted since RCV was passed. Democrats are actively silencing the voices of minorities because Dems believe they know what’s best for minorities anyways. It’s disgusting! Vote YES on 2!

    • Minorities voted at a lower rate in the 2022 elections nationwide compared to earlier midterms, so you can’t be sure it was RCV that caused it. If anyone can back up the claim, let’s see it. (See ‘https://www.brookings.edu/articles/new-voter-turnout-data-from-2022-shows-some-surprises-including-lower-turnout-for-youth-women-and-black-americans-in-some-states/).

  7. Oh, the irony!

    Outside dark money bought ads to convince voters that RCV will rid the state of outside dark money in elections.

    • Irony for sure! The best line is this: “$4.3 million in dark money they received in August to tell us that we don’t want dark money”. I wonder is there are many people out there who don’t understand what the term “dark money” even means?

  8. Vote Yes to repeal Ranked Choice Voting. Vote No on Ballot measure #1. Rank only Begich for the congressional seat. What some other suggestions for voting day?

  9. Check out the players online concerning “Alaskans for Better Elections”. They are acting like Trogen Horses and most of their money comes from outside players. Alaska is being uses as a proving ground for changing our way of life the same way that the high altitude atmosphere seeding is changing our weather patterns, crops, and seeds. Wake up Alaska and watch the sky’s on clear days and the votes during election days. Push to get rid of the electronic voting machines! Make it happen.

  10. “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.”

    If both of them get to the general election, it’s not a problem, because people of that party can rank both of them and their votes will end up with the more popular one. If neither of them gets to the general election as a result of vote splitting, one solution would be to conduct the top 4 primary by RCV as well. That would reduce the possibility of vote splitting. The old plurality voting system has a terrible problem with vote splitting if there are more than two candidates in the general election.

    “Because of the complexity of the system, there is a long delay in receiving the results.”

    No, that’s because in order to give final results, they have to wait for all the ballots to come in. Since the results can change during tabulation, it could confuse or anger people just as much to do trial tabulations before all the ballots are there to be counted and then find out the final result is different. The vote tabulation program only takes a few minutes.

    “Many of the ballots were trashed in the 2022 election, because the people did not understand how to vote.”

    Every credible source I’ve been able to find says the vast majority of ballots that were “trashed” were because of problems with signatures and other identification problems or late filing.

Comments are closed.