The open primaries and ranked choice voting that have delivered more representation for independents and moderate Republicans survived a repeal effort.
Alaska voters narrowly decided to retain their groundbreaking election system. By a margin of just 664 votes, a ballot initiative to roll back open, top-four primaries and ranked choice general elections failed. The Alaska Division of Elections announced the unofficial results on Wednesday.
A recount is likely because the margin was just 0.2 percent. Support for "yes, repeal the system" stood at 49.9 percent. On the other side, 50.1 percent of voters opted for "no, let's not repeal the system." In just the few years it's been in effect, it has delivered more inclusive and less partisan primary elections, more room for lawmakers to govern in less polarized ways, the elimination of the "spoiler candidate" role, and a far reduced chance that candidates win elections without majority support.
Alaska's system has two key components. In the open primary, voters choose one favorite from a list of all the candidates, regardless of voters' or candidates' party affiliation - or nonaffiliation, as is the case for a large portion of Alaska voters. The top four candidates in each race advance to the ranked choice general election. In general election races with three or more candidates, voters rank the contenders from most to least favorite.
The system has allowed a small but significant number of more moderate candidates to run and win in Alaska. It has also given the state's large share of independent voters more say in who gets elected and allowed all voters the option to vote for candidates from different parties in both the primary and general elections. It's part of the reason Alaska's legislature will likely form a bipartisan majority in the state Senate and, most likely, the state House.
The system does not inherently favor one party over the other, but the victory in 2022 of US Rep. Mary Peltola, the first Democrat to represent Alaska in the US House in decades, prompted some Republicans to mistakenly believe that it had. Peltola's win in 2022 against Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich came about because of poor strategy choices by Republican party leaders, not because of the election system. (Instead of sniping at each other, Begich and Palin should have teamed up.)
Other Republicans, however, including US Senator Lisa Murkowski, state Senator Cathy Giessel, and former state Representative Jesse Sumner, all benefited from the system because it enabled them to draw support from voters with an array of political preferences. They spoke out publicly in support and brought some Republicans into the fold, despite pushback from the Alaska Republican Party.
Support from these prominent Republicans ensured the system had enough cross-partisan appeal for Alaskans across the political spectrum to retain it. Looking at the presidential results, about 55 percent of Alaskans voted for former President Donald Trump. A small but critical segment of those voters also opted to keep the open primaries and ranked choice voting election system.
The repeal effort started taking shape in 2023 with a signature-gathering campaign spearheaded by Philip Izon and failed US Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka. The effort eventually drew the attention of the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) for multiple campaign violations, including money laundering through a bogus church in Washington state. For instance, APOC officials in January recommended the group be fined $95,000 for violating state campaign laws. The repeal effort never succeeded in attracting the monetary support that's crucial to winning campaigns. As of October, it reported raising about $127,000.
The initiative's opposition campaign drew enormous sums of money from funders based outside Alaska who believe open primaries and ranked choice voting are critical to tempering political polarization. Key funders included Unite America and Art...
