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I saw half a dozen of my Anchorage neighbors in the alley behind our houses last weekend, engaged in animated conversation. It was late at night, but what is clock time when the sun is shining? The breeze must’ve shifted because one snippet wafted my way: “… and then the third-place finisher is dropped and their votes are redistributed.”
If this grand experiment with ranked choice voting succeeds, Alaskans will endlessly re-enact some version of that alleyway conversation in the years ahead, smugly explaining to Outsiders our superior method of picking political representation.
Alaska’s unique election style would become one of the quirks that defines us, like the Permanent Fund dividend or the way marijuana use was effectively decriminalized here decades before it was legal elsewhere.
And if it doesn’t? Well, this is a bad time to add complications to the vote-counting process. People who want to sow doubt in election results will probe for weakness, or cast aspersions on benign events. There’s a lot at stake here, and the Division of Elections recognizes the need for transparency.
The division just released the reasons 7,500 ballots in the special primary were rejected. That’s nearly 5%. Failing to have a witness signature and failing to provide an ID number before mailing were the most common reasons. The next elections this year won’t be conducted by mail. There will be no envelopes to sign and witness. But the ballots will be more complicated, particularly on Aug. 16, when we rank-choice our way to a winner in the special and also pick-one to primary all the other races. Voters will have to read the fine print and follow unfamiliar directions.
In other political news, there was a lot of news. Al Gross ended his congressional campaign without saying why. That kicked off a chain reaction that reshapes the race. Has the “rank four” election become a “rank three”? Tara Sweeney says she won’t sue to get on the ballot, but will someone else? To catch up, read below.
Overall, this felt like a hugely eventful political week. Maybe it just felt huge to political nerds like me. And you, presumably, if you’re enjoying this newsletter. And my neighbor, who was holding forth about ranked choice voting in an alley under a nearly midnight sun.
Thanks for reading. Email me your questions and news tips.
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