Phil Izon, who spearheaded the effort to give Alaskans a chance to repeal ranked-choice voting in the November 2024 election, has decided to pull his second ballot measure aimed at taking out RCV. Ultimately, RCV survived by less than 1% of the vote.

Since then, Izon and another group have filed similar petitions to, once again, try and repeal RCV. The second group includes influential conservatives such as Bernadette Wilson and Anchorage Republican Women’s Club President Judy Eledge.

On Jan. 13, Izon announced that he is pulling his petition in order to avoid confusion and duplicating efforts. Izon described his rationale in an email to supporters. See below.

For the past two years, I’ve dedicated myself to the fight against Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), working tirelessly to protect the integrity of our election systems. Together with incredible grassroots support, we’ve made remarkable progress: helping six states prevent the adoption of RCV, debating three Alaska legislators, three Oregon legislators, the father of RCV in Oakland and San Francisco, and even Presidential Candidate for the Libertarian Party Chase Oliver.

Despite being outspent 100 to 1 by out-of-state interests pouring $15 million into defending RCV, we stood strong, losing by only a fraction of a percent after two weeks of counting. We fought not only in the court of public opinion but also in Alaska’s legal system, where we successfully defended our ballot measure with unanimous victories in both the Alaska Superior Court and the Alaska Supreme Court.

Though we fell just short this time, I firmly believe RCV is on life support. Momentum is building across the nation, and I’m already offering my support to efforts in Maine and here at home in Alaska to continue this important work. This isn’t the end – it’s another step in the fight to ensure fair, transparent elections for all. Thank you for standing with me in this journey; together, we’ll keep moving forward.

With the formation of a new group dedicated to repealing Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), I have made the difficult decision to withdraw my application. I believe it’s important to avoid duplicating efforts and the potential confusion of having two repeal measures on the ballot simultaneously. My hope is that this new group can achieve their goal – it’s not an easy task, but I fully support their mission and wish them success in this important endeavor.

While Izon is pulling his RCV petititon, he is working on other initiatives, including a new petition that would introduce a Hand Counting System and local counting at precincts, making the process easy for all voters to understand. If passed, this measure would mandate that ballots be received by election day to be counted, and all election results must be available within 24 hours of election day. Voters would also need to show a valid photo ID at the polls before being allowed to vote.

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