Alaska election officials announced on Wednesday that a ballot initiative seeking to repeal the state’s ranked-choice voting (RCV ) system was largely defeated by 664 votes after several weeks of counting votes. After millions of dollars in illegal funds flooded Alaska to beat the measure, millions of dollars were poured into it.
According to The New York Times, unofficial results show Ballot Measure 2 receiving 160, 619 “no” votes and 159, 955 “yes” votes ( 50.1 to 49.9 percent ). Following a contentious legal challenge, the measure sought to overturn Alaska’s top-four RCV program, which voters overwhelmingly supported in the upcoming general election.
Under , ranked-choice election, votes level individuals of all parties in order of taste. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of first-choice seats in the first round of voting, the last-place winner is eliminated, and his votes are reallocated to the politician’s second-choice member. The voting method continues until a single member receives the most votes.
RCV has  , largely , been , pushed , by Democrats and has led to the Democrat victory of tickets for which Democratic candidates finally received the majority vote. It has also been shown to , produce , false election results as also high prices of discarded vote.
In Alaska, for example, Democrat Mary Peltola won the state’s 2022 specific legislative competition, despite “nearly 60 percent of voters casting their vote for a Republican”, as The Federalist has recently noted. Republican Nick Begich’s election bid for 2024 is anticipated to defeat Plotola. Prior to the election, two GOP candidates who had been chosen for the 2024 public poll dropped out to improve Begich’s chances of winning.
RCV even played a vital  , role , in ensuring GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s election over a Trump-backed opponent during the 2022 midterms. As The Federalist’s Tristan Justice recently reported, Murkowski workers were behind the 2020 effort to pass RCV in the position.
According to Alaska Public Media, Phil Izon, who spearheaded the effort to pass Measure 2, reportedly stated that he planned to request a recount after the election is certified, but that he was” not optimistic” that it would change the outcome. According to Ballotpedia, tell requests must be submitted “within five weeks of state certification” and will be reimbursed by the express “if the margin of victory is less than 20 seats or 0.5 % of the caste votes are received.”
The measure’s presumptive defeat highlights a tragic system where out-of-state interests can use infinite dark money to significantly alter public policy in Alaska.
According to a recent study conducted by The Federalist, the left-wing-funded organization that opposed Calculate 2 outspent its followers by a whopping 80 % using funds that were primarily coming from pro-RCV organizations based in other states. According to a statement from the left-wing Alaska Beacon which cited financial statements, the groups Unite America, Article IV, and Action Then Initiative LLC — all of which are based in the Lower 48 — were among the Little on 2 campaign’s” leading three contributors”, according to the document.
Alaska’s final results also indicate that the country’s voters approved Ballot Measure 1, a measure that raises the country’s minimum wage, implements laws governing paid sick leave, and prevents companies from” taking adverse action against people who refuse to attend employer-sponsored discussions regarding political or religious things,” according to Ballotpedia. Proponents of Measure 1 were heavily funded by left-wing organizations in other states, such as the Fairness Project and Sixteen Thirty Fund, similar to the Measure 2 opposition campaign.
The Federalist staff writer Shawn Fleetwood graduated from the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClear Health, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
