OPINION: Protect voting rights and liberty by voting no on Ballot Measure 2

America’s current political climate is nasty. Extreme partisans on all sides seem to focus more on tearing down other sides than on advancing solutions that improve our safety, liberties and prosperity. Hyper-partisanship is a disease that agitates our communities and ferments animosity.

However, the good news in Alaska is that our recent change to open, nonpartisan primary elections and ranked choice instant-runoff general elections helps remedy this civic illness.

The changes were transformative and helped elect leaders with broader support. No longer must candidates curry special favor with a partisan few who decide winners of closed-party primaries. Instead, candidates must focus on how to serve all voters. The changes open a playing field for less strident partisans to run and win elections. No longer are party insiders effectively gatekeepers to the ballot.

Ballot Measure 2 will roll back our current voting system and re-impose party primaries and plurality general elections. Ballot Measure 2 would allow political parties power to exclude all voters from voting in party primary elections unless they register with the party. More than 60% of Alaskans chose not to affiliate as Democrat or Republican and could lose the right to vote in state-funded primary elections.

This troubles me as veteran, too. American military servicemembers take an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Military personnel vote. They can register with a party, but many do not to avoid the appearance of partisanship given their duty to faithfully obey lawful orders of the commander-in-chief, regardless of that person’s political party. Under Ballot Measure 2, they could be closed out of primaries if they don’t register with a party.

Serving as president of the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, which runs the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, also highlighted for me that out-of-control partisanship obstructs responsible Alaska resource development. To have a strong Alaska economy, we need public officials making well-informed rational policy decisions. Our current election system is more likely to foster that.

Organized political parties offer many benefits, but at the extremes, they offer risks as well. In his farewell address to the people of the United States, George Washington described his fear that political parties could bring out the worst in America. He noted the independence and liberty we enjoy were the result of “joint councils and joint efforts.” Our current voting system tracks the wisdom of President Washington’s view, an especially important perspective given the broad diversity of people and interests across Alaska.

Alaska’s current election system gives each of us the freedom to choose any candidate in primary and general elections. We cannot afford to curtail that liberty and turn back the clock to a more divisive political world by letting Ballot Measure 2 pass.

Please join me in putting Alaska, and America, first by voting no on Ballot Measure 2.

Tom Barrett is an Anchorage resident. He formerly served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation, Commander of Coast Guard Operations for Alaska and the North Pacific, and president of Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.

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