So if I’m reading the data correctly and understand the process, if just 5,234 (or more) of the 11,262 Begich only voters had voted Palin as their second choice, then Palin would have won. Those 5,234 votes would have transferred to Palin and allowed her to overcome the final margin.
I suspect most of those voters didn’t understand the process, and thus only voted for Begich.
It’s actually not a bad system, but you have to understand how it works. Where it is in place you have to not fight it, but use it to your advantage.
If you are too lazy to take a few minutes to understand it, and just bitch about how it somehow “ain’t like it should be”, then you deserve the result it gives you.
“I suspect most of those voters didn’t understand the process, and thus only voted for Begich.”
or they didn’t like Palin