Group backing ranked choice voting in Alaska raised $4.5 million in August

The leading group in favor of keeping Alaska’s system of open primaries and ranked choice voting raised over $4.5 million in August from Outside donors, which dwarfs all the donations received by a group seeking to repeal the state’s current voting system.

Alaska voters narrowly approved a ballot measure in 2020 that implemented the new voting system, which was first used in 2022. Opponents have now placed another initiative on the November ballot that would repeal ranked choice voting and open primaries in Alaska. The repeal campaign has raised just over $61,000 so far this election cycle, state disclosure forms show.

Unite America, a Colorado-based group that supports ranked choice voting initiatives across the U.S., has donated $2.075 million in support of keeping the voting system in Alaska. The group was also a top donor in support of the 2020 ballot initiative to implement the new method of voting used in Alaska’s state and federal elections.

Nick Troiano, executive director of Unite America, said in an October interview that “the Alaska system is what we would consider our sort of North Star policy.”

“Because it combines a nonpartisan primary at the primary level — and that means there’s a single, unified primary with all candidates and all voters — and an instant runoff general election that uses a ranked choice ballot to find a majority winner,” he said.

Appearing on Tangle, a nonpartisan news podcast, Troiano said he thought the repeal effort would fail in November.

“Because right now, all Alaskans have the freedom to vote for any candidate they want in every election. If they take away this reform, that will no longer be the case,” he said.

Unite America has in recent months poured millions of dollars into supporting election system overhaul initiatives mimicking parts of what it calls the “Alaska model” in several states, including Montana, Colorado and South Dakota.

Unite America’s top donors this election cycle include Marc Merrill, president of video game company Riot Games; Randy Peeler, a board member at investment firm Berkshire Partners; Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons NFL team; and Kathryn Murdoch, an investor and daughter-in-law of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, federal disclosure records show.

The second largest donor in support of keeping Alaska’s voting system is Action Now Initiative, a Texas-based group that supports electoral reform and other progressive causes and gave $2 million earlier this month, a day after the Alaska Supreme Court issued a ruling that confirmed the repeal initiative would appear on November ballots.

The group was founded by billionaire couple John and Laura Arnold in 2011. Action Now Initiative was another top donor in support of implementing ranked choice voting and open primaries in Alaska in 2020.

“By prioritizing the needs and voices of all voters, regardless of party, Alaska is demonstrating that meaningful change is possible through local initiative and commitment to democratic principles,” a spokesperson for the group said by email.

Katherine Gehl, the former chief executive of a food company and the author of “The Politics Industry,” is another key contributor through her group the Final Five Fund with $250,000 given in support of keeping Alaska’s voting system this year. Other top contributors include Dan Markovitz, who gave $220,000 in early August and is listed as a retired California resident on state disclosure documents, and John Carroll, managing director of a Massachusetts-based investment firm, who donated $200,000 three days later.

In total, No on 2, the lead group in support of keeping the state’s current voting system, reports having raised close to $4.8 million this election cycle. In 2020, the campaign to implement ranked choice voting and open primaries spent nearly $7 million.

Juli Lucky, No on 2′s campaign manager, declined to comment specifically on the big money donations made to keep ranked choice voting and open primaries in Alaska. But she said the two-party system is entrenched in the U.S., and that it has power and influence without spending money.

”To make a change for the better and get rid of some of that entrenchment and give voters back the power — we’re going to need some investment,” she said.

Lucky said Alaskans she talks to are “especially” in favor of open primaries because it gives more competition and choice for the electorate.

Since statehood, Alaska has used different primary election systems. For decades, Alaskans voted on a single primary election ballot. From 2004 to 2020, only registered Republicans and undeclared voters could vote for Republican candidates in the primary. A second primary ballot for Democrats and minor parties was open to all registered voters.

If November’s ballot initiative is successful, political parties could again run primaries open only to their members. General elections would again be decided by a plurality system in which the candidate who gets the most votes wins, even if they get below 50% of all the ballots cast.

Meanwhile, Yes on 2, the lead group in favor of repealing ranked choice voting and open primaries in Alaska had raised $61,000 by late August, or 1.3% of the amount raised by supporters of keeping the current voting system.

The top three donors to the repeal effort include David Cruz, owner of Palmer-based Cruz Construction, who gave $10,000 in June. Thomas Dunham, an Anchorage attorney, gave $5,000 in May. Earhart Roofing, an Anchorage-based contractor, donated $3,500 in July.

Leaders of the Alaska Republican Party said during their state convention in April that they supported the repeal effort, but the party has so far not contributed any funds to the repeal group.

“From the Alaska Democratic Party’s perspective, we are opposing the repeal of the current electoral system because we are honoring what Alaskans decided in 2020,” said Lindsay Kavanaugh, executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party, in an interview earlier in the month.

The Alaska Democratic Party has not reported any contributions so far in support of keeping the current voting system.

Bernadette Wilson, a Yes on 2 campaign volunteer and a veteran conservative political activist, said that ranked voice voting was confusing and that “participating in the democratic process should not be that convoluted.” In an interview, she acknowledged the fundraising deficit for the repeal side.

“It would be nice if you didn’t have such a financial disparity,” she said. “Obviously, money plays a huge role in politics. I think all of us know that. But are we going to completely hang our hat around that? No. We’re going back to commonsense Alaskans. They have lived this and experienced this, and they don’t want it,” she said.

The 2020 campaign in support of implementing ranked choice voting and open primaries focused on a provision in the initiative to end “dark money” in politics. Wilson said it was “kind of ironic” that the 2024 campaign to keep the voting system was overwhelmingly funded by Outside donors. This year’s ballot question would not seek to alter the “dark money” provisions implemented in 2020.

Phillip Izon, author of the repeal initiative, referred to the dueling campaigns as a “David and Goliath story.” He was skeptical, though, that a fundraising effort now would be effective. Citing the scale of the deficit between the two campaigns, Izon said he had been focused on outreach while leading the signature gathering effort to put the petition on the ballot.

“In my opinion, there’s little to no point to doing any marketing or advertising at this point,” he said.

Echoing opponents of ranked choice voting, Izon argued that system of picking candidates was confusing. He said that he was inspired to launch the repeal campaign after his grandfather struggled to vote in the 2022 election.

The 2024 initiative to repeal ranked choice voting and open primaries will appear on the Nov. 5 general election ballot. The initiative requires yes votes from a simple majority of Alaska voters in order to pass into law.