Lawsuit filed over Ballot Measure 2, ranked choice voting, jungle primary

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VIOLATION OF FIRST AMENDMENT AND MORE

A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Ballot Measure 2, which changes the manner in which people vote in Alaska, has been filed in Superior Court in Anchorage, the day after the 2020 General Election was certified by the Division of Elections.

Plaintiffs include Scott Kohlhass, the Alaska Libertarian Party, Robert M. Bird, the Alaska Independence Party, and Kenneth P. Jacobus, a Republican who is also the lawyer for the group. The court filing says that the ballot measure violates Alaskans’ right to free political association, free speech, right to petition, right to due process, and other rights guaranteed to Americans by the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution, and by Article One, Sections 2, 5, 6, 7 and 22 of the Alaska Constitution.

The lawsuit says that Kohlhass, as a member of the Libertarian Party, wants to take part in the selection of his party’s candidate to represent him in a manner consistent with the rules of his party. Ballot Measure 2 does not allow him to do so because it destroys the party’s ability to advance a candidate under the Libertarian Party primary process.

Bird makes the same complaint on behalf of his Alaska Independence Party, and Jacobus says he objects to people other than registered Republican voters participating in choosing Republican nominees for public office.

In addition, Jacobus says that Ballot Measure 2 requires him to participate in a process that violates his rights to free political association as member of a political party.

“All political parties may select their candidates in accord with the rules of each party. This right to do so is a right guaranteed to each party and its members by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, applicable to the defendants through the Fourteeth Amendment and the Constitution of the State of Alaska. This right of all political parties and their members has been confirmed by the Supreme Court of the Unitesd States,” the lawsuit claims, listing several relevant case laws that the Superior Court will be asked to review.

The lawsuit is attached below:

33 COMMENTS

  1. Thanks to all who filed as ballot measure #2 should have been defeated soundly in the recent election had people had a clue what they were really being asked to vote on…I sure hope this gets a speedy hearing and the unconstitutional verdict comes quickly.

  2. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

    Folks, I spent 2 weeks researching and attempting to file a lawsuit…it is incredibly difficult under time and money restraints.

    I can not thank these groups, including Sidney Powell and every single person fighting this in the courts enough for their very hard work.

    On behalf of We the People again, Thank you!

    We still need our own State Legislature to look at these unconstitutional acts by the Judiciary on waiving the Absentee Witness Signature and Anchorage acting mayor/Assembly for options and to ask the Governor to STAND UP and FIGHT or QUIT and get out of the way!

      • Under the United States Constitution Electoral Clause the State Legislatures are responsible for the voting procedures in each state and the Judicial does not make the laws the States Legislature has the sole responsibility for the elections in the state. So by over ruling the Legislature’s requirement for signatures on Absentee Ballots they over stepped their boundaries therefore the ruling should be voided. Any returned Ballot without a signature is invalid and is to be thrown out.

  3. The Supreme will throw it out.

    Their opinion trumps the Law and the US Constitution. After all, they are Judges! (black robed tyrants, as proven more than once in the recent pat.)

    • The US Supreme Court has already held it to be unconstitutional in California Democratic Party v. Jones, 530 U.S. 567 (2000). In 1996 California passed Prop. 198, which had an identical provision as Alaska’s Prop. 2 to make primary elections open to all political parties.

      The US Supreme Court held that it violate our Freedom of Association under the First Amendment. There was never any chance that Prop. 2 would ever be implemented in Alaska, regardless whether it passed or not.

  4. That this proposition was even allowed to make it to the ballot in the first place was an act of judicial corruption of the highest order, given its incredibly complex and multi-subject nature. Propositions are limited, by the state constitution, to ONE subject only. But hey, who needs laws and constitutions when you were a black robe?

    • They need to be impeached for deliberately violating their oaths and the Alaska State Constitution. There decision was criminal, since they knew that they had no authority to override the State legislature and illegally alter an existing law.

  5. I recommend that the plaintiffs set up a legal support fund to cover the costs of the litigation. I would be pleased to contribute.

  6. Where can we donate to support this cause? Fighting against nonsense like this takes time and money and I will gladly do what I can to help support this.

  7. I have always been opposed to the very existence of primary elections. Why should government, with public money, pay the expenses of private political parties to select their candidates? Let political parties run their selection processes in whatever way they like and at their own expense.

  8. Even if this lawsuit goes nowhere, it’s satisfying to know the dishonest, corrupt, out of state liberals who pushed this fraud of a ballot measure will have to spend more money to defend it. Maybe if they lose enough money they’ll stop trying to pollute the election system?

  9. Even if this lawsuit goes nowhere, it’s comforting to know that the corrupt, dishonest, out of state liberals who rammed this fraudulent measure through will now have to spend more money to defend it. Maybe if they lose enough money they’ll stop trying to pollute our system with their terrible ideas?

  10. Thank you for filing this lawsuit!! Ballot measure 2 is a Trojan horse that opens the Alaska election process wide open to fraud. I will be contributing financially when I find out where to do so. Thank you!

    • I thought the same thing too, but, on closer examination, just because he’s a Republican does not mean he is representing or acting on behalf of the Alaska Republican Party.
      The Complaint filed with the court lists the Plaintiffs as “Scott A. Kohlhaas, The Alaskan Independence Party, Robert M. Bird and Kenneth P. Jacobus”. The Alaska Libertarian Party is NOT listed as a plaintiff.
      I’ll have to agree with Will. As usual, the Alaska Republican Party is A.W.O.L. on this one.

  11. Please follow up with what we as individuals can do to support this. Money, signatures, whatever. This thing stunk from the start. The people collecting signatures here in Juneau weren’t even from here, I asked them hard questions and they would just walk away. This reminds me of the failed “Save the Salmon” debacle.

  12. Can anyone (including you, Suzanne) tell me and/or us of any websites, links or online sources that are associated involved with organizing protests against all the COVID-related mandates and restrictions in and around Anchorage? I would really, really like to get involved in protesting all this medical fascism, but I have no idea where to turn to find out about or communicate with anyone in this regard. But I’ve finally had it, and have reached my breaking point with all this BS.

  13. Dominion voting system used in Alaska. Hmmm. Did we really pass 2 or was it helped along by those that would benefit from this major change?

  14. The current lawsuit seems to focus on the primary, and I’d be surprised if the sponsors are successful. I’d be interested in joining in a companion lawsuit based on violation of the “One Person, One Vote Principle.” Forced ranked choice violates my rights to not support candidates I don’t want to support.

  15. This lawsuit deals with both the primary election as well the ranked choice voting in the general election as a violation of the one person, one vote, principle. The Courts will need to look at both issues. Thank you for your interest.

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