by WYATT YOUNG NELSON
I was extremely saddened when I heard that Charlie Kirk had been assassinated. He, like I, feel we have to stand up for what we believe. Sadly, Charlie lost his life doing just that. As a young man from a political family, I have been involved in political efforts most of my adult life. I especially admired Charlie Kirk and his devotion to what he believed. He didn’t just talk about his beliefs; he stood up for them.
I was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, and I’m a proud volunteer with Repeal Now AK, a nonpartisan organization made up of Alaskans from all political backgrounds who are united in a common cause: to oppose ranked-choice voting (RCV) and restore traditional voting in our state.
As part of this grassroots movement, I’ve been collecting signatures from registered voters to place a repeal measure on the 2026 ballot. While working on this campaign, I, and other volunteers have experienced harassment, intimidation, and even physical assault from opponents of the repeal effort—just for exercising our right to collect signatures and advocate for change. It is disgraceful that anyone would respond to peaceful civic engagement with threats and violence. I condemn these acts in the strongest terms.
An example of what damage rank choice voting can do is the city of Minneapolis. They adopted ranked-choice voting in 2009 and first used it in their 2013 municipal elections. That year, there were 35 candidates for mayor on the ballot. The election required 33 rounds of vote counting and redistribution, which took weeks before a winner—Betsy Hodges—was declared. Even then, she was elected without receiving a majority of the vote.
Many voters were confused by the complex system. Ballots were discarded due to errors, and others were “exhausted”—meaning votes were thrown out after several rounds because no remaining candidates were ranked. Voters found themselves forced to rank people they didn’t know, support, or agree with politically. Since then, Minneapolis has consistently had some of the lowest voter turnout rates in its municipal elections.
We’ve seen similar problems here in Alaska since adopting RCV: voter confusion, high costs, and a general sense of frustration. This experiment has not worked. It’s expensive—costing millions of dollars—and with our state already facing financial strain, continuing this system risks further economic damage.
We are simply citizens standing up for a fair, understandable, and affordable voting system, just like Charlie Kirk. We ask opponents to listen, consider the consequences, and do what’s right for the people of Alaska.
Wyatt Young Nelson was born in Anchorage but lived in Nome until moving back to Anchorage where he graduated from Bartlett High School and then attended the ACE/ACT program. He was named after the famous Wyatt Earp and his middle name Young is from his grandfather the late Congressman Don Young. He has been involved in both efforts to repeal ranked-choice voting.
Love the continued confusion mantra from the progressive repubs.
Never gets old.
We rank choice everyday. We do it for driving, food, shopping, fishing, and a host of everyday events.
Detractors often point to the “overwhelming” number of candidates as an issue. They’ve been conditioned to an artificial controlling binary choice, always the choice between the Lesser of Two Evils. Eating out must be extremely difficult for these individuals. Taco Bell or Moose’s Tooth or Taco King with their numerous menu items must be excruciating.
I trust the Alaskans voters, all of them, to determine the winners of the primary.
Are the improvements to be made? Heck yeah. The result timeline is extremely excessive. Yes paper copies could be hand counted and should be available to do so. The presidential candidates should be included.
Regular Alaskans easily navigate RCV. The open primary allows for any Alaskan to participate in the governance of this great state. You do not have to be rich, pretty, or politically connected. You need only courage, listening skills and $100.
“We rank choice everyday. We do it for driving, food, shopping, fishing, and a host of everyday events.”
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And, what are the consequences of poorly ranking those day to day things? Minimal, right? Oh… you ranked your choice of soft drink with lunch and it was not really what you wanted, or you chose to take road X instead of Y and there was a backup. No biggie.
.
Because the adverse impact of making a poor choice when ranking your food choices is minimal, you likely spend almost zero time analyzing the benefits/drawbacks.
.
Now, what are the consequences for poorly ranking political candidates? Massive.
.
Do not delude yourself into believing the average voter will do the proper analysis before ranking. They will not.
You my friend does not speak for all Alaskan.! Voting should be complicated one vote one choice.! No Smorgasburg here.! Candidates vs food not similar.!
Not all Alaskans are “regular” & not all “easily navigate”
But they should ALL be able to vote w/out confusion.
There are very old voters, low iq voters, immigrant voters w/ language issues.
You should try to explain this system to a Somali Yellow Cab driver.
I did. I had to explain it to quite a few people w/ almost no English skills.
Not easy Chris.
“You do not have to be rich (like Lisa) pretty (no comment) or politically connected (LM is a National poster child for this)
You realize RCV was set up by Lisa’s attorney to save her political butt? (& avoid those embarrassing “write in” campaigns) Right?
So w/ RVC we got a highly connected, rich kid for Senator ….. NOT your mythical “average Alaskan”
PS: Mike Dunleavy is a school teacher! ….. sounds pretty “average Alaskan” to me.
So happy to see this young man standing strongly for what he believes in!
Ok, you convinced me. You are against RCV and we should vote on it for THIRD time. Would it be too much to ask of you, just where can a person find this elusive petition? Oh never mind.
You can find the petition outside of the Carr’s Huffman store for one—I just signed it. Not elusive at all. Right out there for everyone to see.
Get rid of mail in voting and you will see RCV disappear
As a fellow petition worker to Repeal RCV, I applaud you! I have to say in my experience, this is really a non partisan effort, though the D’s don’t see it that way, many registered D’s have signed the petition. The most glaring fact I have uncovered is the degree this system has disenfranchised seniors and those with English as a second language. We must rid ourselves of this atrocious system.
If you are collecting signatures, please tell everyone where you are going to be.
I searched the website… nothing. It is almost as if you do not actually want enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot.
Advertise. Do not count on supporters to stumble over you.
Yes. I am a precinct chair & it is the old, the foreign born w/ lang issues & low iq people that have problems. The amount of “spoiled ballots” more then tripled after RCV.
Some make a mistake & correct it once, some correct it a 2nd time.
That’s it you only are allowed 3 attempts to vote.
But some don’t correct it & let the bad ballot “cast” anyway because they are discouraged, in a hurry or just embarrassed that they did it wrong.
How can our “one person, one vote” libs support this? (just to save Lisa?)
Just remember, last time Repeal RCV barely made it to the ballot. It was retained by a fairly large margin. That being said, I do oppose RCV and will vote against it once again. On principle. I do not support open primaries. I do support our right to form political parties and for the candidates to be chosen only by the members of that party.
And, as a reminder, RCV was losing right up until the last day or so of counting ballots. Both times. Not suggesting something illegal happened, but it does seem weird that voters did not want it right up until the last moment. Then suddenly enough ballots to pass with a good margin got counted. Weird how they were all grouped together like that.
Mail in voting is a criminal act. One might as well be allowed to print their own ballots. As many as they wish. There is no chain of custody, and no possible way to determine who completed that ballot. It is a crime against ‘Democracy’.
Are suggesting that people who use absentee ballots should be arrested?
I did not read that in Citizen’s message.
I read mass mail in voting without the voter requesting it. Not absentee voting.
Then again… I cannot speak for others.
What ever happened to the farce that was on the initial ballot for RCV regarding limiting “outside dark money” funding of local candidates?
There is more outside dark money supporting Alaskan Democrats than ever before in the history of elections.
Peltola was a poster child for outside funding with the majority from East coast funding sources.
Alaska is just a discardable pawn for George Soros.
According to President Trump, voting by mail and voting machines can not be trusted as legitimate. Shouldn’t elections be suspended until they are removed?
Good idea.
Let’s suspend all elections until we get rid of widespread mail in voting and counting machines. That will take… about six hours.
Those who facilitate mass mail in voting are criminals. Those who use ballots not their own to cast votes are criminals. Are you a criminal Jimmy? Well… are ya? Or just low IQ?.