• Home
  • Independent Voter News
  • Quizzes
  • Election Dissection
  • Sections
  • Events
  • Directory
  • About Us
  • Glossary
  • Opinion
  • Campaign Finance
  • Redistricting
  • Civic Ed
  • Voting
  • Fact Check
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Voting>
  3. open primaries>

Alaskans will decide on sweeping election reform plan in November

Shirin Ali
June 15, 2020
Alaska voting

The state's tradition of rewarding political independence includes re-electing Lisa Murkowski to the Senate as a write-in after she lost the GOP primary.

Eric Engman/Getty Images

A measure that would revamp Alaska's elections will be put to a statewide vote in November.

The package cleared the last remaining hurdle to getting on the ballot Friday, when the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously that it met the requirement that referendums all relate to a single topic.

Adoption of the initiative would on a single day push Alaska to the forefront of states adopting central goals of the mainstream democracy reform movement. The proposal would replace traditional partisan primaries for state and federal officeswith single contests open to all candidates; allow the top four finishers to advance to the November ballot; use ranked-choice voting to choose the winner; and bolster state campaign finance rules with strict new disclosure requirements.


While a handful of states have adopted open top-two primary systems, and Florida voters will decide this fall whether to join them, Alaska would be the first with primaries that advance even more candidates to the general election — increasing the likelihood that people who are not Republicans or Democrats will be able to compete in many races.

Maine is now the only state that uses ranked-choice voting statewide, although a November referendum bringing that alternative election system to Massachusetts looks likely.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

The path for such a statewide vote in Alaska was cleared after the state's top court decided in favor of Alaskans for Better Elections, the group pushing the referendum, which would not apply to presidential and municipal elections.

Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer had initially used his unusual power over such matters to refuse to put the proposal on the ballot, arguing it violated a state constitutional requirement that such initiatives be confined to one subject. He was backed in that position by state Attorney General Kevin Clarkson, a fellow Republican.

Meyer argued the proposal was an attempt at logrolling, deliberately combining several dissimilar subjects in order to secure the necessary majority for passage.

The high court, upholding a lower court decision, disagreed. "A plain reading of the initiative shows that its provisions embrace the single subject of 'election reform' and share the nexus of election administration," the justices said.

Importantly, the court also noted the measure showed no transparent attempt to garner voter support through completely unrelated provisions. The court found nothing misleading or unclear about the initiative falling under one broad category of "election reform."

"These two substantive changes are interrelated because they together ensure that voting does not revert to a two-candidate system," Justice Daniel Winfree wrote in explaining why switching to open primaries and the so-called RCV system should be allowed in the same proposal. And while moving away from elections dominated by the two major parties, he said, it's critical for voters to "have adequate and accurate information about who is paying for campaign communications to influence their vote."

Under the proposal, all candidates for governor and other state executive offices, each seat in the Legislature and the three spots in Congress would be listed on one primary ballot. Candidates would have the option to list their party affiliation by their name or be listed "undeclared" or "nonpartisan."

The four with the most votes in the primary, regardless of party affiliation, would be on the general election ballot — at which point the RCV would be used.

Voters would rank their choices and, if no one had a majority of top-choice ballots, an instant runoff would take place. The candidate with the least amount of No. 1 votes would be dropped, and the ballots ranking that person on top would be assigned to the No. 2 candidate — the process repeating until one candidate emerged with majority support.

Voters could still opt to choose only one candidate; ballots that did not rank all the available candidates would not be considered invalid.

After traditional and unchanged presidential primaries, ranked-choice voting would be used to award Alaska's three electoral votes under the referendum. Elections for municipal posts would not be altered.

The final element of the plan would require additional disclosure of contributions to independent expenditure groups and about the sources of contributions in campaigns — generally when the amounts topped $2,000. The proposal would require a disclaimer on paid election communications by independent expenditure groups funded by mostly out-of-state money. Under current federal election campaign law, candidates benefiting from independent expenditures have no reporting obligations.

From Your Site Articles
  • Ranked-choice voting backers eye momentum from NYC victory ... ›
  • Florida voters to decide on open-top-two primary structure - The ... ›
  • Alaska's RCV and open primary plan take a step forward - The ... ›
  • Magic Johnson endorses open primaries in Florida - The Fulcrum ›
  • Ranked elections rejected in Massachusetts and likely Alaska - The Fulcrum ›
  • Alaskans switch to open primaries and ranked elections - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Ranked-choice voting: What it is, and why some Alaskans say we ... ›
  • Ranked choice voting: Will Alaska follow Maine's lead? - Anchorage ... ›
  • Alaska Top-Four Ranked-Choice Voting and Campaign Finance ... ›
  • Ranked-choice ballot initiative would destroy Alaska's voting system ... ›
open primaries

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

How a college freshman led the effort to honor titans of democracy reform

Jeremy Garson

Our poisonous age of absolutism

Jay Paterno

Re-imagining Title IX: An opportunity to flex our civic muscles

Lisa Kay Solomon

'Independent state legislature theory' is unconstitutional

Daniel O. Jamison

How afraid are we?

Debilyn Molineaux

Politicians certifying election results is risky and unnecessary

Kevin Johnson
latest News

How the anti-abortion movement shaped campaign finance law and paved the way for Trump

Amanda Becker, The 19th
24 June

Podcast: Journalist and political junkie Ken Rudin

Our Staff
24 June

A study in contrasts: Low-turnout runoffs vs. Alaska’s top-four, all-mail primary

David Meyers
23 June

Video: Team Democracy Urges Citizens to Sign SAFE Pledge

Our Staff
23 June

Podcast: Past, present, future

Our Staff
23 June

Video: America's vulnerable elections

Our Staff
22 June
Videos

Video: Memorial Day 2022

Our Staff

Video: Helping loved ones divided by politics

Our Staff

Video: What happened in Virginia?

Our Staff

Video: Infrastructure past, present, and future

Our Staff

Video: Beyond the headlines SCOTUS 2021 - 2022

Our Staff

Video: Should we even have a debt limit

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Did economists move the Democrats to the right?

Our Staff
02 May

Podcast: The future of depolarization

Our Staff
11 February

Podcast: Sore losers are bad for democracy

Our Staff
20 January

Deconstructed Podcast from IVN

Our Staff
08 November 2021
Recommended
Bridge Alliance intern Sachi Bajaj speaks at the June 12 Civvy Awards.

How a college freshman led the effort to honor titans of democracy reform

Leadership
abortion law historian Mary Ziegler

How the anti-abortion movement shaped campaign finance law and paved the way for Trump

Campaign Finance
Podcast: Journalist and political junkie Ken Rudin

Podcast: Journalist and political junkie Ken Rudin

Media
Abortion rights and anti-abortion protestors at the Supreme Court

Our poisonous age of absolutism

Big Picture
Virginia primary voter

A study in contrasts: Low-turnout runoffs vs. Alaska’s top-four, all-mail primary

Video: Team Democracy Urges Citizens to Sign SAFE Pledge

Video: Team Democracy Urges Citizens to Sign SAFE Pledge

Voting