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.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
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.
25 Comments
You actually described Lisa Murkowski to the “T” and we will see more of that bad behavior in her image. Talk about the “devil” and every description fits with Lisa Murkowski and her image an actions for years and years. She and her cohorts will do all they can to keep this evil system in place.
I still don’t believe there are as many embracers of RCV as there were ‘no’ votes. We have a serious chain of custody issue with ballots in our state and unless all those votes are verified before certifying the election there is know telling what is legitimate or not. A deck to ly changed to recount the same votes with any audit or inspection.
Do you understand basic arithmetic? Nobody can STEAL votes in ranked choice. The MORE candidates you run from a party the better your odds are since there is *ranking* and no such thing as a wasted vote. If the republican party just ran like 10 different candidates in the 2022 election they would have certainly won. Instead they ran Begich, and Caribou Barbie. That’s their fault. In 2024 instead of running 10 candidates they took a massive risk by ONLY running Begich.
The Democrats are ALSO clearly smoking crack. They ran exactly ONE candidate in both elections. You couldn’t invent a dumber strategy if you TRIED. They are insanely lucky Peltola won considering they ONLY ran one candidate. I guess more people were feeling liberal than conservative in 2022 and so despite the libtards idiocy running ONE candidate they somehow managed to survive.
At some point people with common sense will figure out that BOTH the democrats and republicans should be running 10+ candidates EACH to maximize their odds of winning. That’s how ranked choice works.
I’m not sure why t
So Carl, what you are saying is that we now need to game the system and spread the campaign cash thinly among many candidates. I’d prefer for like minds of each party to pick someone they want to represent them. Obvious there are two major parties, one that believes a man can have babies and the other that knows they can’t. In other words a party based on common sense and science, and the other that based on unicorn beliefs. The last primary we chose not to have Lisa Murkowski represent us, and she lost. So, Lisa found another way to game the system and we now have RCV.
Carl, I’d say the Democrats did the wise thing by running one candidate. If in your scenario, 10 Republicans run for a certain office, and they split the vote between them, but the sole democrat gets 50 % + 1, the Dem wins in the first round. Rank choice only kicks in if no one has gotten 50% +1 in the first round. That is why Dahlstrom dropped out, because if Peltola had gotten 50% +1 in the first round, she would have won; Dahlstrom wanted to give the Republicans the best chance of winning the office. And I say, good for her, she cared more about the platform of the party than the personalities, herself included, involved. The only positive I can see for RCV is that if you wanted to vote for a 3rd party, but felt your vote would be wasted, you could vote for the 3rd party in the first round and put as #2, one of the two that you know is going to win, Democrat or Republican….but that is only if you are pretty sure that the opposition party was not strong enough to get 50% +1 in the first round. That is basically what happened in this election, John Howe’s constituency voted for Begich 2nd. Peltola won in 2022 because the majority of people were confused as to how rank choice worked.
So a solution for conservatives may be entering multiple faux democrates to dilute their vote? How would that work w/Murkowski as she seems hell bent on pretending to be a Republican?
I think that multiple strategies need to be taken. One for sure is demand that all ballots be received by election day and no later. Mail in ballots need to be stopped. Absentee ballots need to be held to the original intention of when a person absolutely could not get in to vote and the exceptions would be scrutinized. 2020 and 2024 saw wins for the deep state after election day, when ballots kept coming in until the “cut-off” date.
you got it. Absentee ballots swung the election for the no votes. If all ballots had to be in by election day , the cheaters would not have two weeks to come up with just enough votes to win.
Yeap… That Narrow Margin strikes again… Couldn’t bust the algorithm but so what… Now both sides are going to play the same game… It’ll be fun to watch for a switch… ^^^
The ends don’t justify the means.
If it’s a bad system, it should be rejected. Not used by the other side to achieve what they discern to be the best outcome.
Our efforts should be focused on getting rid of RCV, not preparing to play the game at the next level.
But the reality is the reality. It’s a “live to fight another day”, as sick as that seems. In 2024, the RNC changed a whole hella (even objectionable early voting, registration and ballot harvesting) and WON. Beat them – then change what needs it.
I will echo Elizabeth Henry: RCV likely WAS repealed, but doggone it, those trickle-in “votes” for liberals changes close elections. See Hickel v. Hammond, 1978. It is impossible to “game” RCV. It is like trying to untangle a plate of spaghetti. You will never get conservatives to agree on the best strategy, the comments prove that right here. Instead, an ILLEGAL initiative ought not to be enforced by the Governor. This goes for the recent Prop 1, too. See Article III, Sec. 16. Ignore whatever the courts have to say when they violate the constitution. If we all dog-piled Wimpy Mike, he just might do it. It has INSTANT results if he agrees, instead of arguing about RCV or waiting til next election or trying another initiative that will merely get Outside $$$ to avalanche us. And all that Outside $$$ could very well have been used not to gain votes, but to create the ILLUSION that their lying advertising works. The real sucker-punch might have been through mail-in ballots. Agree or disagree, your comments encouraged.
I think you are correct ,However I believe it goes to the heart of what kind of Government we Have in Our State and The USA.
We are to be a Republic and all other Forms of Govt. are Repugnant of that and I think this form of Voting is not only wrong but perhaps Illegal.
The votes on repeal I still question because of the 113,000 voters information that was compromised. How many of these voters actually voted and did they vote for repeal or not to repeal of RCV. Putting our eggs in the basket of the Legislature coming through with a repeal of this monstrosity is almost non-existence. The one wild card in this whole thing would be with the Governor exercising his authority and moving us away from this garbage voting system.
RCV benefits organized groups instructed to vote strategically along with allied liberals who are obsessed with politics and have no need of instruction. There are a few independent liberals/leftists like Jimmy Dore and Chris Hedges, but about 99% march in lock step. The 99% constantly repeat the same slogans and phrases. The “right” is simply that which opposes the left and it’s divided into many parts, not “factions”, many of which are not even aware of each other. The result is that in the case of a niche cause like RCV, the left is organized and raises millions and the right is disorganized and raises virtually nothing. ADN Sep 3, 2024: “The leading group in favor of keeping Alaska’s system of open primaries and ranked choice voting raised over $4.5 million in August from Outside donors, which dwarfs all the donations received by a group seeking to repeal the state’s current voting system…The repeal campaign has raised just over $61,000 so far this election cycle, state disclosure forms show.”
That is pure Bovine Scat. The late votes from outlying areas were a fraudulent steal.
In my opinion, we need look no farther than Lisa Stunking Murkowski and her leftist backers.
These people are thieves and traitors.
I would be interested in hearing an opinion or opinions about how I did vote in the ranked-choice representative race. I ranked Begich first; then the other two candidates, who I felt had no chance of getting a majority vote; and did not rank Peltola at all.
Dunleavy and dalhstrom are the precise reason we have this fraud thrust on us! GET IN THERE FACE AND THANK THEM !
RCV was pushed by Attorney Scott Kendall and the dark money from largely democrat big donors. The only way to find the system as “unconstitutional” is by initiating a lawsuit to be heard by the courts. Until then, a constitutional amendment is law and must be enforced.
HELLOOOOO SHELIAAAAAAA
PAY ATTENTION
TREG TAYLOR IS THE ATTORNEY GENERAL!
HIS JOB IS TO UPHOLD AND ENFORCE THE LAW!
ARE YOU STUPID?
Everyone has an opinion about how RCV should work but does anyone, can anyone, outside The Club know how RCV actually –did– work?
Nope, it took too long to come to the final conclusion, and there was no way to know if the final counts were legitimate. It is highly likely that Democrats cheated as evidenced by the long period of time they took to get the votes counted for the simple RCV tally. That should have been FINAL within 12 hours of polls closing. That it wasn’t, is prima facie evidence that they cheated.
Has a report on the recount been put out yet? I thou they were going to be done last Friday
it’s being redacted!
No vote in any state should be counted if the ballot is received after polls close on election day. Period. No exceptions for any reason.
I’m sick of states, including Alaska, that are counting votes AN EFFIN’ MONTH after election day! No state should be allowed to count votes more than 36 hours after polls close. If Florida can count their 10 MILLION votes within a few hours of the polls closing, then every other state can do the same. Time to LOWER THE BOOM on cheating libtards.
Also, no voting machines should be allowed. Every ballot should be paper with fill-in the oval selection so there is a paper trail. And there should not be any mail-in ballots except for military, etc. Mailing a BLANK ballot to voters is probably OK, but you should have to return the FILLED-OUT ballot in person and show ID, have signature verified, and your name checked off indicating that you voted – so you can’t vote more than once. Also, if RCV remains in Alaska (it should be repealed), Republicans should only allow one candidate on the ballot in the general election.
It is DISGUSTING what libtards have done to this country including destroying the integrity of elections.