AFN delegates urge Alaskans to vote no on Ballot Measure 2, the ranked-choice repeal

Alaska Federation of Natives delegates on Saturday urged Alaskans to reject Ballot Measure 2, passing a resolution on the last day of the group's 60th annual convention in Anchorage. AFN said the vote was unanimous.

The measure, on Tuesday's ballot, would bring back party primaries and single-choice general elections, ending the open primaries and ranked-choice general elections voters approved in 2020. It would also repeal campaign finance rules passed that year, including disclosure of the true source of donations, according to its official summary.

Sealaska Corp. submitted the resolution, renewing a stand AFN took in 2024. Voters rejected an earlier repeal that year by 743 votes, the narrowest ballot measure result in state history.

AFN's board decided not to endorse any candidates this year, after delegates backed Mary Peltola in 2022 and 2024.

Delegates passed 49 resolutions in all. They include both late resolutions from the Southeast Alaska Caucus. One asks Congress to withdraw or revise the historic preservation provisions of a Senate permitting bill. The other opposes a Census Bureau plan to drop race and ethnicity questions from the 2030 census.

Delegates also backed a moratorium on seabed mining off Alaska, a resolution from Kawerak, Sealaska and the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.