Alaskans split over ranked choice repeal at state ballot measure hearing

A ballot measure headed to Alaska voters this November would eliminate the state's top-four primary and its ranked-choice general election. It would replace them with party primaries. It would also repeal a requirement that donors disclose the true sources of political contributions over $2,000. Under the measure, general election voters would pick one candidate in each race, and the candidate with the most votes would win. The ballot summary says the measure would remove limits on donations to joint campaigns for governor and lieutenant governor. It would strike limits and disclosure rules covering digital ads, out-of-state donations and undisclosed donations, change the meaning of a campaign expenditure and remove some fines. The proposal cannot be amended before the vote. It drew nearly two and a half hours of dueling testimony at a public hearing Wednesday.

Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom opened the hearing and read the ballot summary into the record. The hearing is required under a law the Alaska State Legislature passed in 2010. Dahlstrom gave the sponsor and the opposing group 10 minutes each and asked members of the public to keep testimony to about three minutes.

Alaskans approved the current system at the ballot box in 2020. Under it, all candidates run on one primary ballot regardless of party, and the top four vote-getters advance. General election voters then rank up to four candidates by preference. If no one wins a majority, the last-place finisher is eliminated and those ballots are redistributed to voters' next choices until someone crosses 50 percent plus one. Ballots that rank only eliminated candidates and no one else become inactive, or "exhausted." A repeal attempt failed in 2024 by 743 votes, the narrowest ballot measure result in state history.

Sponsor Bethany Markham said the measure repeals every part of the 2020 initiative: ranked choice voting, the top-four primary and the campaign finance rules. She said exhausted ballots are one of the most common concerns she hears, describing them as ballots that "either at the beginning or at some point during the process are no longer counted." Markham said ranked choice voting has been banned in 19 states. She said repeal would restore primaries open to undeclared voters, not closed party primaries. "We encourage all Alaskans to vote yes to end the mess of ranked choice voting on November 3rd," she said.

Scott Kendall, speaking for No On 2 Protect Alaska's Elections, disputed both points. He said no Alaska ballot has ever been trashed, and that a voter who stops ranking is treated the same as a voter whose third-place candidate lost under the old system. Kendall said the delay in Alaska results "has nothing to do with RCV." He described it as a long-standing struggle caused by record overseas voting rates and a slow mail system, and said the tabulation process itself is nearly instantaneous. Kendall said the measure lets either major party bar undeclared voters from its primary by changing its bylaws and notifying the director. He also said constitutional protection for ballot measures would freeze the outcome. "If Ballot Measure 2 were to pass, we will have no ban on dark money in Alaska for 2 years," he said. He called the measure a Trojan horse.