In the November 5th election, the Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) recall effort in Alaska failed by a narrow margin. The GOP has asked for a recount, and if that fails, another recall initiative may eventually be attempted, but it looks like there are enough Alaskan voters who support this method of voting that we are stuck with it for another election cycle. Since this is the case, we better start learning how to use it politically, and I am talking about weaponizing it against those who supported it in the first place.

When RCV was first passed, it favored those on the left. Mary Peltola’s election victory in 2022 surprised everybody and demonstrated to Democrats how their weak candidates might win races against stronger conservative opponents. Peltola’s victory also showed that a more sophisticated approach was needed to overcome the big flaw of ranked-choice voting. That flaw is that the top four vote-getters in the primary are automatically moved to the general election. This creates the possibility of multiple candidates from the same party stealing votes from each other in the general election, giving the party with only one candidate an advantage. Hence, the reason for Peltola’s 2022 victory.

This is just another reason why Ranked Choice Voting is a horrible system. It allows devious election strategies that can be weaponized to cheat in elections.

In this year’s election, the Republicans didn’t repeat 2022’s mistake. After finishing third in the primary election, Republican Nancy Dahlstrom wisely dropped out of her congressional race. This allowed a head-to-head matchup between the strongest candidates from each party, and the Republicans were able to win.

This same flaw in RCV, which permits multiple candidates from the same party to advance to the general election, presents an opportunity that no political party has yet attempted. Political parties could weaponize RCV against their opponents if they want to act strategically. Let me explain how this might work.

Suppose the Democrats want to win more election victories using the Mary Peltola model. In close races, they could intentionally register multiple faux Republican candidates to run in the primary election. They could do this by deceptively asking their own party members to switch parties and having several of them run in the primary as faux Republicans against a strong opponent. With multiple “Republican” candidates to choose from in the primary, several might be in the top four vote-getters and make it through to the general election. The faux Republicans will then siphon votes from the legitimate Republican candidate, which could throw the election to the Democrat. This would be something like the Peltola victory but done with intent instead of by accident.

RCV supporters will likely claim this strategy will never be attempted, but I did describe this tactic in a blog post before the election. If a political novice like me can think up something like this, you can be sure that professional political activists on the left know its potential and will eventually use it. Since RCV permits this tactic, it is only a matter of time before one of the political parties will attempt it in an actual election.

This is just another reason why Ranked Choice Voting is a horrible system. It allows devious election strategies that can be weaponized to cheat in elections. RCV permits elections to be stolen using fraudulent tactics, and that is probably why it has supporters in the Democratic party and those who worked for Lisa Murkowski’s reelection in 2022. RCV is a despicable voting system that should have no place in a free society, but Alaskans are stuck with it for now.

I predict that the only way our state will ever get rid of RCV is when the Democrats start losing elections because of it. Conservatives should watch who files to run in the 2026 election and consider employing this tactic against the Democrats in close races.

To paraphrase H.L. Mencken, those who voted to keep RCV deserve to get it back, good and hard.

The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.

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