Ballot Measure 2: Alaskans will decide whether to repeal or retain open primaries and ranked choice voting

Alaska voters are being asked in the Nov. 5 general election whether they want to repeal or retain ranked choice voting and open primaries.

In 2020, Alaska voters narrowly approved a ballot initiative that implemented the new election system.

Supporters have focused their campaign on retaining open primaries, arguing that they take power away from political parties and result in more consensus candidates getting elected. Opponents have argued that ranked choice voting is convoluted and complicated.

The Alaska Republican Party has endorsed the repeal effort. The Alaska Democratic Party — along with the Alaska Federation of Natives, Alaska Native corporations and other groups — has supported keeping the system.

One week out from the election, supporters of keeping the election system had raised close to $14 million, overwhelmingly from Outside donations. The main group backing the repeal effort had raised just over $100,000.

What Ballot Measure 2 does

A yes vote on Ballot Measure 2 would repeal Alaska’s system of ranked choice voting and open primaries for state and federal elections. A no vote would retain it.

A provision implemented by the 2020 ballot initiative required greater disclosures for “dark money” donations — it not would be changed by the ballot measure this year.

In recent years, ranked choice voting initiatives have appeared on the ballot in states and cities across the country. Nevada, Idaho, Oregon and Colorado voters will decide in the November election whether to implement ranked choice voting.

Ten Republican-leaning states have passed measures to ban that method of tabulating votes.

”I think that we’re going to win, but I think it’s going to be close,” said Juli Lucky, campaign manager for No on 2, the group working to keep the election system.

Alaska became the second state to adopt ranked choice voting four years ago. If the repeal effort succeeds, Alaska would become the first state to abandon it.

Open primaries

For most of the state’s history, Alaska had a single primary for all candidates. 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 the repeal effort is successful, Alaska would return to party-run primaries. Political parties could hold closed primary elections, which are solely for their members.

Some conservatives have supported implementing a closed Republican primary. But prominent GOP members have said it would be disastrous to exclude undeclared voters, who make up close to 60% of the electorate.

Primaries were once critical in legislative districts that had a strong partisan lean. For example, in the Mat-Su, the winner of the Republican primary could be all but guaranteed of winning in the general election. It was the same story for the winner of the Democratic primary in downtown Anchorage.

Critics of partisan primaries say they result in candidates who appeal to a party’s base, and are often more extreme.

Under Alaska’s current open primary system, the top four vote-getters, regardless of political affiliation, advance to the general election.

“Nonpartisan, open primaries ensure that every single Alaskan voter has the ability to choose from every candidate that’s running,” said Lucky.

Under the former system, seven Republican legislators lost their reelection bids in the 2020 GOP primary — the majority of whom were moderate Republicans who lost against more conservative opponents.

Anchorage Republican Sen. Cathy Giessel lost in that GOP primary, but she was reelected two years ago under the new election system. She is a supporter of open primaries and said they were “a significant factor” in her win.

In the 2022 election, three moderate Republican legislative candidates won in safe Republican seats against more conservative opponents. Giessel was one of them, along with Sens. Jesse Bjorkman and Kelly Merrick.

Political observers say all three Republican candidates would likely have lost in a GOP primary and the Senate would have been more conservative for the past two years.

Giessel has been part of the Senate’s 17-member supermajority, along with Bjorkman and Merrick. She said nine Democrats and eight Republicans have been working well together.

“Now we can work together in a caucus and address the things that Alaskans want to get done,” she said.

Scott Kendall, former chief of staff to former Gov. Bill Walker, authored the 2020 initiative that implemented the new election system. He said in the past two years that there has been greater functionality and productivity in the Alaska Legislature.

“Folks, let’s give this a chance to work, because it’s working,” he said.

This year, a handful of Republican candidates dropped out after the primary in an effort to avoid splitting the GOP vote. But supporters of the repeal effort have generally been less critical of open primaries than ranked choice voting.

Critics, though, have suggested that moderate Republican U.S. Sen Lisa Murkowski could not win in a GOP primary, and that the system was designed to benefit her. Murkowski, who won reelection in 2022 in an open primary, said she would vote no on the repeal question.

Ranked choice voting

Under ranked choice voting, Alaskans can pick candidates in order of preference.

If no candidate gets more than half the first-choice votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated and their votes are redistributed to the other candidates based on their supporters’ second-choice votes. That process is repeated until one candidate has a clear majority.

Kendall said ranked choice voting was combined with open primaries to prevent “the spoiler effect” — where two candidates with similar views split the vote.

If the repeal effort succeeds, Alaska would revert to a plurality system: The candidate with the most votes would win, even if they get below 50% of the overall vote total.

“I think ranked choice voting basically takes away the one-person, one-vote and compromises the election,” said former Republican Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell in support of the repeal effort.

Campbell argued supporters of the 2020 ballot initiative focused their campaign on ending “dark money,” and that Alaska voters had been deceived into implementing ranked choice voting.

Opponents of that election system have pointed to Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola’s election victory in 2022. Peltola defeated two Republicans: former Gov. Sarah Palin and businessman Nick Begich III.

One-third of Begich voters did not rank Palin second, meaning she did not come from behind and defeat Peltola.

Opponents of ranked choice voting have said with roughly double the number of registered Republicans than Democrats in Alaska, a Republican would likely have won under the former election system.

Outgoing Wasilla Republican Rep. Jesse Sumner disagrees and says that was “an exceptional case.” In a September debate, he argued in support of keeping ranked choice voting and open primaries.

He said that Palin would likely have won the GOP primary and lost in the general election because of her high unfavorability rating across Alaska.

“From the moment Sarah Palin entered the race, that race was lost, and it would have been lost under the old system too,” he said.

Another criticism of ranked choice voting is that it’s complex and takes too long to get results. The Alaska Division of Elections has decided to complete the tabulation process once all absentee ballots arrive, which can happen 15 days after the election.

Wasilla Republican Sen. Mike Shower has vocally opposed ranked choice voting. He said he’s spoken to Alaskans who have been frustrated with that method of voting, and a more complicated ballot. The former election system could be tweaked, but it was better, he said.

”Go back to a simple, easy-to-understand — one person, one vote — count them all, have the results within a day, and be done,” he said.

Lucky said results in 2022 showed Alaskans understood ranked choice voting. There was a low error rate on ballots, which was comparable to prior elections under the former system, she said.