Alaska’s high court largely upheld the official wording of a November ballot measure that seeks to repeal ranked-choice voting but ordered one specific change before voters see the question in November.
In an Aug. 27 ruling, the Alaska Supreme Court affirmed most of a June 15 lower court ruling that approved the title and summary for Ballot Measure 2. The high court’s only change was to order the state to include wording explaining that a successful repeal of ranked-choice voting would result in candidates for governor and lieutenant governor running separately, as they have in the past.
“This matter is remanded to the Lieutenant Governor for the limited purpose of correcting an omission from the ballot summary,” the Supreme Court ruled. “The Lieutenant Governor must add an explanation that in the primary election, candidates for Governor would run separately from candidates for Lieutenant Governor.”
The rest of the approved language stands, unchanged. A full court opinion will follow later.
Repeal Now campaign, which is spearheading the effort to get rid of ranked-choice voting, had a mixed response to the order.
“Repeal Now appreciates today’s Alaska Supreme Court ruling,” the group said in an Aug. 27 statement. “The court ruled in agreement with our request to correct an omission in Ballot Measure 2, ensuring Alaskans know that voting Yes on 2 in November returns Alaska to separate elections for Governor and Lieutenant Governor.”
“During the proceedings, Mr. Kendall was forced to admit that voting Yes on 2 will return Alaska to the default primaries, which were open to independent voters in Alaska.”
However, other parts of the ruling should give Alaskans pause, Repeal Now organizers noted. They had asked the court to throw out the state’s official ballot title and summary for Ballot Measure 2 and replace them with wording which the campaign believes is more accurate and understandable to voters.
They made this request after ranked-choice advocates, led by attorney and RCV-author Scott Kendall, filed a lawsuit in January and the Division of Elections revised the ballot language. Repeal Now filed its own countersuit in mid-February, claiming the revised text was not “true and impartial,” and claiming that ranked-choice defenders had gotten their preferred wording, which included multiple references to the word “repeal,” along with a rewritten ballot measure title that Repeal Now claims favors the opposition.
Repeal Now had asked the court for the ballot measure title to include the specific words “ranked-choice voting.” In the end, however, the justices allowed the state’s current title to remain in place, which states: “An Act Restoring Political Party Primaries, Ending Ranked-Choice General Elections, and Repealing Recent Campaign Finance Laws.”
Judy Eledge, the chair of Repeal now, issued a statement shortly after the court order was released.
“The ruling today gave the state government a brand new power that should worry all Alaskan citizens: the power to collude with a dark money group behind closed doors to rewrite nearly one third of a citizen ballot measure, to do it after tens of thousands of voters had already signed in support of the original language, and the power to do so without the input of the citizen sponsors,” she said.
Repeal Now’s broader statement also raised concern that the court missed a clear opportunity to set the record straight on open primaries.
“Scott Kendall represents the dark money group spreading lies that voting Yes on 2 would result in closed primaries,” Repeal Now claimed. “During the proceedings, Mr. Kendall was forced to admit that voting Yes on 2 will return Alaska to the default primaries, which were open to independent voters in Alaska.”
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Eledge noted that Kendall’s admission on this point was telling.
“I could see in his eyes how painful it was for Mr. Kendall to have to tell the truth on court record that Yes on 2 will return Alaska to primary elections in which 100% of Alaska voters can participate,” she said.
In oral arguments, the justices, Kendall, and Repeal Now all appeared to agree that voting Yes on 2 will return Alaska to open primaries where even independent voters can participate. This fact went effectively undisputed, Repeal Now stated.
Given these facts, the group lamented that the justices are “allowing deceptive ballot language that says in the very first line, ‘This act would get rid of open primaries.'”
The fate of Ballot Measure 2 will be decided by voters in November. If it passes, ranked-choice voting will end in Alaska.
Conservatives have long argued that ranked-choice is confusing to voters and easily manipulated by candidates who enter a race only to siphon off votes from other candidates.
