By JOHN STURGEON

You’ve likely heard the saying that politicians are like diapers: they should be changed often, and for the same reason.

All joking aside, if we Alaskans want to change public policy, we have to change the people who control it. Voters of all political stripes understand this simple concept.

We Alaskans use a time-honored process for “changing diapers,” and it’s easy to understand: each person gets one vote, and the candidate who earns the most votes wins. But this November, Alaskans will be asked to vote on Ballot Measure 2, which would throw our election system into chaos. 

First, nearly all the money behind Ballot Measure 2 comes from out-of-state billionaires and special interest groups unknown to most Alaskans. I know from experience that outsiders rarely have Alaskans’ best interests at heart. That’s why I fought the federal government at the US Supreme Court twice when they wrongly tried to assert control over Alaska’s waterways.

So naturally, I became worried when I learned that 99% of the $1.1 million spent in support of Ballot Measure 2 comes from outside our state. This alone should ring alarm bells in voters’ minds. 

Perhaps the most sweeping change proposed in Ballot Measure 2 is to toss aside our “one Alaskan, one vote” system and replace it with a scheme known as ranked choice voting (RCV).

It’s so complicated, it’s hard to explain, but here’s the gist: voters would be forced to rank every candidate on the ballot, regardless if they wanted that particular candidate to win. Fail to do that, and that vote is at risk of being thrown out if no candidate receives over 50 percent of votes cast.

In this situation, a computer system (yes, you read that correctly) would calculate the winner using an algorithm that takes many pages to explain to voters. Under this nightmare scenario, the candidate who is declared the “winner” of an election could be someone who received far fewer votes than the first-place candidate, but instead received a significant number of second, third, or even fourth-choice rankings.

Confusing? Yes. And that’s the intent. 

Backers of Ballot Measure 2 claim this will ensure that each election produces a victor who has the support of a “majority” of voters. But they fail to explain how a tortured majority that was Frankensteined together by adding everyone’s third or fourth-place preferences is really what voters want. Bottom line, this new system is unnecessary; our time-tested system of the candidate with the most vote wins works just fine. 

Former Governor Sean Parnell (R) and former Senator Mark Begich (D) agree on this issue, admitting it’s a mess. They wrote in a Wall Street Journal editorial that ranked choice voting “encourages political trickery.” Special interests with political savvy will run wild, free to unleash unsavory candidate and ranking strategies aimed at forcing a computerized runoff and manipulating the final outcome. The political elite will benefit from these rigged elections while average Alaskan voters will lose their voice. The swamp is the only winner in this scenario. 

Stick with me, as there’s even more to attempt to explain. Another massive change proposed by Ballot Measure 2 is to completely throw out Alaska’s traditional primary elections and impose California’s “jungle primary” system. Candidates from all political parties, as well as nonpartisan candidates, would all appear on the same primary ballot. The top four vote-getters from this process would then advance to the general election. 

Once again, voters would be disenfranchised, because this process eliminates their right to select a political party nominee for the general election. In areas that are dominated by a single political party, multiple candidates from the same party would appear on the ballot, while smaller minority parties could lose their ability to advance a candidate to the general election. This could leave many voters with no desired candidate on the ballot. 

While I can’t speak to the motives of the New York and California billionaires funding Ballot Measure 2, I can tell you that the sweeping changes proposed by this initiative would disenfranchise Alaskan voters, invite voter manipulation and political trickery, and further erode trust in our democratic process.

It’s our responsibility to step up, speak out, and inform our neighbors about everything they stand to lose if Ballot Measure 2 becomes law. Sure, we may not have a ton of cash from out-of-state billionaires, but we still have something they don’t: the right to cast a vote in Alaska. Together, let’s protect the integrity of our elections and our votes by voting no on Ballot Measure 2.

John Sturgeon is chairman of Defend Alaska Elections—Vote No on 2. He previously spent 12 years fighting to reverse federal intrusion on Alaska’s public lands, achieving victory at the U.S. Supreme Court twice.

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By DAN FAGAN

If you’re looking for a reason to hold out hope for the future, here’s something: The Left, Democrats, and their media allies have done lost their minds.

We all thought the Marxist social justice warriors couldn’t get any crazier when they demanded men, who fancy themselves women, be allowed to relieve themselves in a bathroom in close proximity to your 12-year-old daughter.

They told us opposing men using the ladies room makes us hateful, close-minded, behind the times, and anti-transgender.

In 2016, North Carolina passed a bill banning dudes from using women’s bathrooms. Suddenly, the media painted North Carolina as a state of backward bigots. The NBA even pulled its All-Star game out of the state because of the law.

So, what’s this crowd trying to normalize now? How about pedophilia and sexual exploitation of children.

We witnessed the Anchorage Assembly and current Mayor Ethan Berkowitz enact a law this year that one Eagle River business owner says will greatly benefit child predators and pedophiles.

Matt Hickey was sexually abused as a 13-year-old boy. The experience left him believing for much of his teenage years he was gay. He now realizes he was never gay. Today he is married with children.  

Hickey said if he had the opportunity to talk with a counselor to help him with his unwanted same-sex desires, it would have saved him plenty of heartache, guilt, and shame when he was a teen.

But the Anchorage Assembly and Berkowitz made it illegal for counselors to help abuse victims like Hickey deal with his unwanted same-sex desires. A counselor can be fined $500 a day if they discourage teenagers from pursuing sex changes.

The law also prohibits counselors from helping teenagers deal with their unwanted same-sex desires. Under the law, the counselor can encourage the child to pursue homosexuality, but not get help with overcoming such desires.  

Hickey says the ordinance is a huge win for pedophiles.

“If you can’t go to a counselor, pedophiles are going to love this because they’re going to be able to approach these kids even more and the kids are going to be afraid to say anything because there’s going to be nobody to talk to, “ says Hickey. 

One thing we’ve learned over the past five and a half years about Berkowitz and his hard-core, hard-left, rubber stamp Assembly is they are copycats. They take their cue from crazy Leftists in the Lower-48.   If you see a new Leftist agenda idea pop up elsewhere in the nation, expect to see it in Anchorage soon enough.  

Whether it’s the plastic bag ban, enabling and growing the number of drug and alcohol addicted living on the streets, destroying small businesses using COVID-19 as an excuse, or posting the Black Lives Matter banner on city property, Berkowitz and his obliging Assembly are nothing more than an extension of the insanity currently afflicting our nation.

For example, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed Senate Bill 145, reducing penalties for those convicted of having sexual relations with minors. Under previous California law, child sex predators having oral or anal sex with a minor were automatically added to the state’s sex offender registry.

Senate Bill 145 gives a liberal soft on crime judge the discretion to block the child predator from landing on the sex offender registry. This was already the case for child sex predators involving vaginal penetration.

Backers of the bill sold it as anti-LGBTQ discrimination. But anyone with any sense realizes it’s nothing more than going soft on gay pedophiles legislation.  

This is not an isolated incident. Look at the controversy over the Netflix film, “Cuties”, for its disturbing sexualization of pre-teen girls. Defenders of the movie claim the film exposes and condemns the practice. But the movie, which I obviously refuse to watch, features scantily clad pre-teen girls dancing provocatively and in an overtly sexual fashion. I’ve seen a clip and it’s disgusting.

If President Donald Trump wants to guarantee his reelection on Nov. 3, he would come out strong against the film. The Left, Democrats, and the media reflexively oppose anything the president favors. Remember Hydroxychloroquine? The Left hates Trump so intensely, he could get them to defend the sexualization of pre-teen girls simply by opposing it.

The Left has become so radical, extreme, and certifiably insane, only the most brainwashed of fools could back their movement. Berkowitz and his devoted to the cause backers on the Assembly should take heed. The people of Anchorage are onto their ways. Anchorage is not San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, or Los Angeles.

Come April of 2021, we’ll see a voter revolt much like the one that surfaced in the recent Republican primary. The day of reckoning is coming.

Dan Fagan hosts the number one rated morning drive radio show on Newsradio 650 KENI. He splits his time between Anchorage and New Orleans.