By AlaskaWatchman.com

The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), which advocates for conservative policy reforms across the nation, says Alaska’s New Year’s resolution should be to scrap its “ill-advised” ranked-choice voting system.

Since 2015, FGA has achieved 283 state policy reforms in 40 states and 20 federal policy reforms impacting 868 state policies. The group’s mission is focused on integrity in social programs and elections to limit government power and keep it accountable to the people.

The group’s website indicates that it has a history of working with Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on issues like unemployment and election integrity.

On January 10, it issued a proposed New Year’s resolution for Alaska.

“A year of crazy elections in Alaska is finally in the rearview mirror,” FGA stated. “But without ridding the state of ranked-choice voting, this confusing and ill-advised vote counting system will continue to undermine the integrity Alaska’s elections and disenfranchise voters in the future.”

The group notes that ranked-choice voting was approved via voter referendum in 2020, and debut in Alaska this past fall.

“American elections were built on the principle of ‘one person, one vote,’ but RCV threatens that principle by systematically discarding ballots that fail to rank every candidate,”

“Instead of declaring a winner based upon who received the most votes, as is commonly done in elections determined by plurality, RCV requires a candidate to earn more than 50 percent of all of the votes,” FGA observes. “But instead of giving voters a second chance to vote on the top two candidates when a majority hasn’t been reached, as runoff elections attempt to do, RCV requires voters to predict the election’s outcomes and preemptively rank every candidate on the ballot — even those they may oppose. If they fail to rank each candidate, voters risk having their ballot exhausted — a pretty euphemism for “thrown out.”

In recapping how ranked-choice voting played out last year FGA recounted that Alaskan voters initially used the system in August to select a replacement for late Congressman Don Young.

“…60 percent of voters went for a Republican. But by the last round of tabulation, Democrat Mary Peltola was declared the winner,” it noted. “In this case, more than 11,000 ballots were tossed because the voters had cast their vote only for another Republican candidate. As a result, Peltola came out ahead by slightly more than 5,000 votes.”

After the initial round of voting, Alaskans were forced to wait more than two weeks before getting the results, while having no representation in Congress during the delay, FGA stated.

The next stab at RCV cam in the November midterms, when Democrat Mary Peltola won reelection to the state’s at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives after three rounds of RCV tabulation and, once again, after nearly 15,000 ballots were exhausted, the group said.

“And even though Senator Lisa Murkowski won a plurality of votes right off the bat in the race for Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat, it also took three rounds of RCV tabulation for her to be declared the winner,” it added.

But it wasn’t just federal contests that were affected by RCV’s complicated and confusing rules, FGA warned.

“Several state seats were also subjected to rounds of RCV, including the race for House District 18,” it notes. “In this case, the Republican incumbent won a plurality of nearly 44 percent in the first round, yet ultimately lost to Democrat Cliff Groh by just 77 votes. Notably, 104 votes were exhausted — more than enough to have changed the outcome. And to get all of these results, voters were forced to wait more than 16 days.”

In the coming year, Alaskans should resolve to overturn ranked-choice voting, FGA advised.

“American elections were built on the principle of ‘one person, one vote,’ but RCV threatens that principle by systematically discarding ballots that fail to rank every candidate,” the group observed. “And to complicate things even further, RCV delays election results and opens the door to increased distrust in the system.”

“When all of our efforts should be put toward increasing election integrity and making it easier to vote and hard to cheat, RCV puts an unrealistic burden on voters to be informed about every single candidate and stretches out the election process far beyond our comfort level,” FGA continued. “This year, Alaska’s New Year’s resolution should be to drop RCV before it’s too late. Alaska is just one of two states that have adopted RCV for all elections, but as the Left continue to push for RCV across the United States, Alaska should reverse course and tell its cautionary tale about the failed experiment of RCV.”

TAKING ACTION

Alaskans for Honest Elections is actively working to repeal the state’s ranked-choice voting scheme. The goal is to return back to the traditional election system with party primaries and no ranking of multiple candidates on the general ballot. Click here for more information, and to learn how to support this effort.

Click here to support Alaska Watchman reporting.

U.S. election watchdog group urges Alaskans to send a message by scrapping ranked voting

Joel Davidson
Joel is Editor-in-Chief of the Alaska Watchman. Joel is an award winning journalist and has been reporting for over 24 years, He is a proud father of 8 children, and lives in Palmer, Alaska.


18 Comments

  • John J Otness says:

    Lose this marxist garbage RCV or lose our Republic…

  • John J Otness says:

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    THOSE WHO PUSHED THIS WITHOUT FDA APPROVAL HAVE MURDERED.

  • Neil DeWitt says:

    Just for information, Nevada, has adopted RCV. Friends I had told me. As I explained they relised I’m not a fan of RCV and we aren’t Friends anylonger. I see it as their loss not mine. Since Obama was president I’ve cleaned house with wishy washy liberals. I’m an independent and proud to say I don’t need either party to tell me how to vote. I vet the candidates and vote for tge one that I think can do the best job. Most of the time that’s a republican. Yes I was raised Democrat.

  • Elizabeth Henry says:

    RCV is not voting. It is a deceptive shell game. I have not met anyone, even among my not so conservative friends, that like it or voted for it. It needs to be done away with asap.

  • Friend of Humanity says:

    We absolutely need to fight to get the RCV removed. The globalists are at work here in Alaska to take complete control and they have so many Alaskans mesmerized. We need to wake people up! SGT Report interview with Harley Schlanger from 1/13/23 is an excellent interview talking about the globalist agenda.

    https://rumble.com/v25djj2-a-satanic-commitment-to-depopulation-harley-schlanger.html

  • Lobo says:

    We can’t seem to get a Constitutional Convention due to the scare mongering, and misinformation (lies) having been spread… Maybe we can get this one done .. Maybe… We’ll see.

  • Tom Johnson says:

    ***
    Whereas, the Republican Party of Alaska believes in and supports the principles of Democracy, Fairness and Majority Rule, and

    Whereas, Alaskan voters should be able to vote their conscience without fear of wasting their vote or helping elect candidates they least prefer, and

    Whereas, Instant Runoff Voting [a.k.a. ranked choice voting] eliminates majority voters splitting their votes among similar candidates allowing a candidate with only minority appeal to win, and

    Whereas, Instant Runoff Voting eliminates spoilers, those candidates with little chance of winning who can knock off more representative candidates, and

    Whereas, Instant Runoff Voting insures majority rule without having the expense of a runoff election

    Now therefore be it resolved that the Republican Party of Alaska fully supports the Instant Runoff Voting initiative proposition appearing on the August, 2002 Primary Election Ballot.

    (Adopted by the Republican Party of Alaska in State Convention on May 18, 2002)

  • Samy says:

    I agree, Get Rid of Rank Choice, Dominion machines, Mail In Voting.

  • Chris says:

    The spoiler in our RCV was the result of a concentrated effort to crowd others out of governing positions. Those two repubs spoiled each other. RCV had nothing to do with vitriol that caused 7k plus Begich voters spend their second on Ms Mary. The open primary allows for a diversity of governing positions in lieu of bowing down to the private political parties represented by Jeffries, McCarthy, Schumer and Mitch.

  • Friend of Humanity says:

    This in the title and more. If this does not piss you off, what will?
    “Situation Update, Jan 16, 2023 – The US MEAT SUPPLY will soon be widely infected with mRNA spike protein bioweapons” by Health Ranger Report

    https://www.brighteon.com/205a1819-1ae1-48be-9355-a82f9e7f4dd4

    • Anon says:

      Learn to be ungovernable !
      Hunt our own meat
      Fish when they are running
      Become Off grid in plain sight

  • Ian says:

    This policy analysis leaves much room for improvement. There were just as many upsets from Republicans as there were Democrats in the last election. And I would wager that the majority of exhausted ballots on the Republican side were due to the fundamentally flawed strategy by the Republican party to only “rank the red.” RCV ultimately elects candidates with more support from more people, which would seem to be a fundamental tenant of our democratic ambitions. If all you care about is winning some tribal party battle, then by all means, try to overturn it. But in IMO, there is a higher goal here.

  • DaveMaxwell says:

    I’m very surprised that comments aren’t being made in regards to Mike pacarro the afternoon talk show host on keni . His advertising agency took a large sum of money from the murkowski campaign to give the false impression that this RCV garbage could be used to the advantage of the conservative! After it apparently won in the election then pacarro began trying to pursuade people how to vote and take advantage of the gimmick!
    We were led into a tragedy we may be stuck with!!!

  • Richard Eide says:

    Don’t like RCV? Get involved. Obtain a petition and get signatures. You’ve got 6 weeks!