A few years ago, Alaska residents, like many in Minnesota, were fed a steady stream of lies about the virtues of Ranked-Choice Voting. In 2022, Alaskans learned firsthand that the complications and lies surrounding RCV were quite different than what they had been promised.
Under Alaska’s RCV rules, a primary election is held and the top four finishers, regardless of political affiliation, advance on to the general election with Ranked Choice Voting selecting the eventual winner.
Last month, they had a competitive primary election where the top vote-getter was the incumbent: Democratic Representative Mary Peltola, who received 50.9% of the vote. Finishing behind her was a very competitive Republican primary where the top vote getter was Nick Begich (26.6%) and the current Lt. Governor Nancy Dahlstrom, who received 19.9%. One other Republican was in the race who received less than 1% of the vote.
Then, the fireworks began: both the Lt. Governor and the candidate with less than 1% of the vote dropped out of the race.
Under Alaska’s RCV rules, the next two candidates, who came in fifth- and sixth-place in the primary, were promoted onto the general election ballot. As it happens, this leaves candidate Begich as the lone Republican on the November ballot.
The two new candidates? In 5th place, earning 621 votes (out of 108,407 total votes counted) is John Wayne Howe, representing the Alaskan Independence Party. His “platform” is that Alaska’s vote for statehood “was illegal.”
The other new candidate who will appear on the general election ballot is Eric Hafner who is running as a Democrat – something he has done in several other states. He received only 467 votes in the Alaska primary, likely because of his inability to campaign while currently serving time in prison.
Alaskan Democratic officials are apoplectic and filing various lawsuits to keep Mr. Hafner off the ballot. Good luck. Last month, a state judge ruled that his appearance on the November ballot “simply highlighted the realities of ranked-choice voting and a ‘top four nonpartisan open primary.”
All of this legal wrangling came about because those same Democratic officials supported RCV in 2022 and now have to live with its very real and ugly consequences. Thankfully, the state’s Republican party has finally qualified a ballot measure to repeal RCV that will also appear on this year’s general election ballot.
Minnesotans concerned about RCV had an opportunity to hear directly from newly-elected Congresswoman Mary Peltola in 2023 when she appeared at a Minnesota House Elections committee hearing singing the praises of Ranked Choice Voting. We suspect she would sing a very different song if invited back next year after this election farce, all brought about because of RCV.
