Alaska's ranked-choice fight returns to the Supreme Court, months before a repeat repeal vote

Alaska's ranked-choice voting system is back before the state Supreme Court next week, the latest round in a years-long, closely divided fight over how the state runs its elections, and one that arrives with a repeal already on the November ballot.

The court hears argument Tuesday in a challenge brought by state Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel of Anchorage, Alaska AFL-CIO president Joelle Hall, and Waahlaal Gidaag Barbara Blake. The court's calendar does not state the legal question at issue, and the parties have not commented, so what exactly the justices will weigh is not yet public.

What is clear is the ground it sits on. Alaskans narrowly approved the open primary and ranked-choice system in 2020, and the Supreme Court upheld it in 2022. Two years later, an effort to repeal it came within a hair of succeeding: the 2024 measure failed 49.9 percent to 50.1 percent, the narrowest ballot-measure result in Alaska history, decided by 743 votes.

Now the fight is headed back to voters. A fresh repeal qualified for the Nov. 3 ballot after the Division of Elections verified nearly 43,000 signatures, and it would scrap the top-four primary and ranked-choice general election, returning Alaska to party primaries and plurality general elections. It would also repeal the contribution-disclosure requirements that came with the 2020 measure.

The two sides have made their cases plainly. Judy Eledge, who chairs the Repeal Now campaign, has called the current system "extremely confusing to people." Rebecca Braun of Alaskans for Better Elections, which defends it, put the other view simply: "It might not be perfect, but I think that it's better."

The argument comes just a week after Alaskans voted under the very system in question, in Tuesday's top-four primary.