In part one of this series, I showed how it is likely Lisa Murkowski will become Alaska’s next governor if she runs as a Democrat. Is there a way to stop her? Yes, there is, and ironically, it is by using the very same Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) system that was put in place to help her win her last election to the US Senate.

It may be possible to use RCV strategically against Murkowski to accomplish two objectives. To deny her the election victory and to show voters how Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) can be used to sway elections unfairly. Some people have said that RCV will not be repealed until the liberals start losing elections because of it, and depriving Lisa Murkowski of the governorship would be a good way to do that.

This is how the strategy would work. It involves having a conservative run a sacrificial campaign for governor, running as a Democrat. The candidate would not intend to win, but to purposely sabotage Lisa Murkowski’s candidacy and, hopefully, RCV along with it. I suggest that radio host Bob Bird consider accepting this task, due to his strong conservative views and his popular support on the Kenai Peninsula. However, if he is unwilling, other conservatives, such as Loren Leman or Sean Parnell, might be willing to take on the challenge.

Should Murkowski file to run for governor as a Democrat, our sacrificial candidate would also file to run as a Democrat. With only two “Democrat” candidates running and given the large number of candidates in the race from the GOP, our sacrificial Democrat will likely garner enough votes in the primary to be among the top four vote-getters and advance to the general election as a Democrat, along with Murkowski. (Note – I am not counting Tom Begich’s candidacy in this scenario. We all know he is only a placeholder who will drop out if Murkowski declares her candidacy as a Democrat.)

In the November 2026 general election, our faux Democrat would receive votes that would normally go to Murkowski. In this situation, it would be a reverse Peltola 2022 tactic. The faux Democrat might steal enough votes from Murkowski to deny her an election victory.

Is this possible? Yes, it is. An analysis of every election since this state adopted RCV demonstrates that when there are two candidates from the same party in the same general election race, the weaker dual-party candidate receives about 20% of the vote on average. In fact, for the 2024 Congressional election, Eric Hafner, a convicted felon who was in prison at the time, ran as a Democrat alongside Mary Peltola and received 1.04% of the vote. Hafner was a non-Alaskan in prison for gosh sakes, and several thousand Alaskans still voted for him! The votes he received would probably have gone to Democrat Mary Peltola had Mr. Hafner not been on the ballot.

A well-known conservative running as a Democrat on the general election ballot would certainly get many more votes than Mr. Hafner did, perhaps as much as 20% of the vote. Our faux Democrat could take enough votes from a Murkowski campaign to swing the race back to one of the more conservative Republican candidates when the vote count takes place.

The strategy works even better if Republicans who lose in the jungle primary all agree to drop out of the race and pledge their support for the winner of the top Republican vote-getter in the primary. If they should do so, it would result in two Democrat candidates, Murkowski and our faux Democrat, running in the general election against one GOP candidate. This would almost guarantee a conservative will win the governor’s race.

Of course, since Lisa Murkowski has not yet declared her candidacy for governor, this suggestion is purely hypothetical, but the ability to weaponize RCV will eventually be used by one of the parties to steal an election. I can think of no better time to do it than now. It would have the dual purpose of defeating Left-wing Lisa, and it would show the world the horrible flaws of the RCV system, perhaps creating a groundswell of support to recall this unconstitutional abomination of a voting system.

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

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