One donor supplied 99 percent of the non-individual money behind Alaska's ranked choice repeal

A single entity, Aurora Action Network, has given $1,830,500 to the campaign to repeal Alaska's ranked-choice voting system, more than 99 percent of the roughly $1.84 million the Alaska Public Offices Commission has recorded from non-individual donors to Repeal Now. Aurora Action Network is not registered as a group with the commission and has filed no independent expenditure reports of its own, so whoever ultimately funds it does not appear in Alaska campaign finance records.

The campaign's own numbers do not match the state's. Repeal Now lists cumulative contributions of $1,542,397.96, about $300,000 less than the non-individual money alone in the commission's database.

The disclosure gap matters because state rules require it to close. For ballot-measure elections, contributors of $500 or more must file a true-source statement within 30 days, a requirement effective since November 2024. Two of Aurora Action Network's 2025 contributions, $27,000 and $5,000, instead carry an APOC annotation reading "True Source Submitted via Spreadsheet, Contact APOC Staff for Information," meaning that record sits at the agency rather than in public view.

The campaign's own recent filing shows how far its grassroots fundraising trails that outside money. Repeal Now's Ten Day report, covering Aug. 7 through Aug. 15 and filed Sunday, lists 35 contributions totaling $3,180.95, a haul roughly 63 times smaller than the $200,595 in unpaid advertising debt the campaign still owes Facebook and Google through the November election, $67,910 to Facebook and $132,685 to Google. Twelve of the nine-day contributions are $25 or less, the smallest is $10, and most donors list their occupation as retired. The largest individual gift is $500. Rep. George Rauscher of Palmer gave $100 on Aug. 7. The campaign is led by chair Judy Eledge and treasurer Bethany Marcum.

The address on Aurora Action Network's contributions changes partway through. Every entry from June 2025 through a $50,000 gift on Feb. 9, 2026, is listed from Hudson, Wisconsin. Every entry from a $250,000 contribution on April 9 onward is listed from Anchorage, which is when the amounts jump into six and seven figures.

At the Lieutenant Governor's public hearing on the measure on July 27, testifier Christopher Rayner told the hearing: "That prevents dark money from heavily influencing our politics, and that's important, especially when you consider somebody like the Aurora Action Network." He added that the group "stated that it's in Anchorage" but "is actually organized in Wisconsin."

Not every witness at that hearing opposed the measure's disclosure changes. Bethany Markham, a sponsor of the repeal, argued the opposite: that current disclosure rules were built to protect incumbents and let more dark money into Alaska. "The disclosure changes were made to protect incumbent candidates," Markham said. "And second, they were made to ensure that the dark, more dark money can flow into Alaska. And we want to repeal to end both of these things."

Ballot Measure 2 would repeal ranked choice voting, reinstate closed primaries, and repeal the campaign disclosure rules voters adopted in 2020. Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom verified 42,837 signatures on Dec. 31, 2025, above the 34,098 required from at least 30 House districts. A 2024 repeal attempt failed 49.9 percent to 50.1 percent. Alaska News earlier covered a state filing tying $1.5 million from Elon Musk, routed through a PAC, to the repeal effort; the records reviewed here do not show whether that money is part of Aurora Action Network's total.

The commission met July 9 on whether to expedite a complaint involving Repeal Now and Aurora Action Network and declined immediate action. This account is drawn from commission records and hearing testimony, and neither Aurora Action Network nor Repeal Now responds in that material. Voters decide the measure Nov. 3.