Alaska’s Ranked-Choice Voting Travesty

Wall Street Journal ^ | 8/20/26 | Kimberly Strassel

[EnderWiggin1970]

Alaska’s first two ranked-choice elections were embarrassments, marked by complexity, confusion and delay. But, oh, for the good old days of mere humiliation. This year operatives finally cracked the many devious ways the system can be outright gamed. Alaska is now the poster child for dirty-pool politics.

Alaskans won’t know until the end of August which “final four” candidates for each office will be on their ranked-choice November ballot after this week’s jungle primary. Residents will need that time to recover from the trauma of a monthslong campaign in which they were not valued as “we the people,” but duped and confused, treated as pawns in a seedy game.

Alaska conducts elections in two stages under completely different rules. First, all candidates, regardless of party, face off in a primary, in which each voter casts a single vote. The top four finishers advance to the general election, in which voters can rank all four and their votes shift in multiple rounds of counting in which the bottom finisher is eliminated and his votes reassigned.

As with Alaska’s past races under this system, which began in 2022, there was the usual insane complexity: 17 candidates for governor, 16 for the U.S. Senate, 15 for the state’s lone House seat. This is in part a function of Alaska’s silly filing requirements, the loosest in the country. Anyone can run for office for a fee of $100—no need to gather petition signatures. That encourages frivolous candidacies in Alaska’s system, allowing attention seekers the guarantee of having their name listed next to prominent people—and free media.

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TOPICS: Politics/Elections; US: Alaska
KEYWORDS: alaska; choice; election; elections; ranked; rankedchoice; voting

[EnderWiggin1970]

At least the felon and the out-of-staters weren’t deceiving voters. The Senate race featured the last-minute entry of a retired elementary school teacher with a history of supporting Democrats, including Mrs. Peltola. He happens to be named Daniel Sullivan—the same name as the Republican incumbent—and filed, just before the deadline, to run as a Republican. The decoy insists he isn’t trying to confuse voters, and isn’t working with Mrs. Peltola or her supporters. Yet his filing documents were handled by an Anchorage Democratic consultant, and his campaign logo is a near replica of Sen. Sullivan’s.

Maybe I should change my name to Mary Peltola and run against her if she wins this election. Never mind I'm a guy in Wyoming, that's no obstacle these days under these rules.

[falcon99]

You can thank ranked choice being used to Murkowski who pushed it in order to keep her office. She is one of the most corrupt politicians to ever come out of Alaska.

[GMThrust]

This year’s attempt to rid us of this corrupt RCV is filled with the usual deception, lying and tying it to “dark money”. Every sign says to keep “dark money” out of Alaska, vote to keep RCV. I’ve argued with people who don’t understand that RCV doesn’t directly bring in “dark money”. It is merely the means of voting, period. “Dark money” comes in with these damn open primaries and a Ballot measure (BM) to increase the individual and corporate donations to a candidate. That passed overwhelmingly. There are other particulars that I could throw out there concerning that BM, but I’m getting too pissed off. You get the gist.

[HYPOCRACY]

I hear people disappear in Alaska all the time. Why can’t they lose Murkowski somewhere in the tundra?

[Scrambler Bob]

Voting Travesty?

Is he D or R?

[Gay State Conservative]

The Rat Party loves rank choice voting because of the opportunity to cheat. It’s that simple.

[SENTINEL]

"Why can’t they lose Murkowski somewhere in the tundra?"

It happened to Senator stevens, Begich replaced him months before Begich was the deciding vote to pass Obamacare.

[Ex-Con777]

Is it even auditable?

The results come in too late to really change a wrong result. What should take a few nanoseconds takes a month. By then, the damage is done.

I’m still wondering how this is constitutional wherein some people get to have their votes counted and others don’t.

EC

[minnesota_bound]

Ranked choice means your vote does not count for who you vote for.