Elon Musk is donating big to help repeal Alaska’s ranked choice voting system. Considering how big an abomination ranked choice voting is, it may be the best thing Musk has done since he left his role at the White House.
Musk donated $1.5 million to a PAC that, in turn, donated $1 million to the campaign to repeal Alaska’s ranked choice system. Ballot Measure 2 would also repeal the top-four open primary Alaska uses, as well as a “dark money” disclosure law. Alaska implemented these changes via a ballot measure in 2020 that passed by a difference of around 3,700 votes, and a 2024 repeal was reversed after a recount, failing by a difference of just 743 votes.
SARAH PALIN BLASTS DAN SULLIVAN FOR ‘HIDING BEHIND’ LISA MURKOWSKI ON RANKED-CHOICE VOTING
Alaska is one of just two states (Maine being the other) that use ranked choice voting in statewide general elections. Alaska’s open primaries allow the top four candidates in the field to advance to the general election, where voters can then rank them 1 through 4. The fourth-place candidate is eliminated after the first vote count, with their votes being distributed to the second-ranked candidate on those ballots, with the process repeating itself until one candidate is the winner.
What this means is that, in theory, one person’s third-place vote can (and does) count the same as another person’s first-place vote. It is a violation of the principle of “one person, one vote,” as one person’s vote for hypothetical Joe can be canceled out by another person’s vote for Kevin, redistributed from their vote for previously eliminated Michael, redistributed from their vote for previously eliminated Steve.
ALASKA SUPREME COURT ALLOWS SECOND DAN SULLIVAN TO APPEAR ON BALLOT
Ranked choice voting does not improve candidate quality, as its proponents have claimed. If anything, fringe candidates will receive more votes, as their supporters know they can still throw their “backup” votes on a more mainstream candidate. Nor does it improve polarization; if anything, it does the opposite, encouraging voters to vote based on defeating one candidate they hate and not based on supporting one candidate they think can actually do the job. All ranked choice voting does is dilute the power of some people’s votes to allow other people to support their first, second, or third (or more) picks, all in the very same election, using just one ballot.
No statewide or congressional election should be decided by ranked choice voting, which empowers indecisive or negatively polarized voters at the expense of other voters. A voting system that effectively gives some voters multiple votes will never be fair by any metric, and abolishing ranked choice voting in Alaska will be a welcome win for free and fair elections in the United States.