ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Colorado voters will be deciding whether or not to overhaul elections with open primaries and ranked choice voting this November with Proposition 131.
Currently, Alaska and Maine utilize the process statewide while several other local jurisdictions like New York City and Boulder have also implemented ranked choice voting (RCV) for municipal elections.
In 2024, multiple states such as Colorado and Nevada could join those ranks with ballot measures that have brought in millions of dollars from wealthy backers both in Colorado and around the nation.
For Alaskans, open primaries and ranked choice voting have worked exactly as intended since implementation in 2022. But depending on who is asked, this is seen as both good and bad.
State Senator Cathy Geissel is a Republican who was primaried in 2020 to a more conservative challenger under Alaska’s previous election system.
Geissel said the state Republican party fractured, with some moving further to the right, making it difficult to pass legislation. As a result, she often worked across the aisle with Democrats to advance and approve bills.
“Initially, I opposed the initiative,” said Geissel in regards to the open primary and RCV measure. “I carried the belief that the parties should determine the outcome of primaries for themselves.”
But once she was primaried, she ran again in 2022 under the new system. She prevailed and beat the same opponent who had ousted her. Geissel credited the new election method for her victory.
“I knocked on doors that I had walked past previously, and I found out how delightful it was to talk to a huge variety of Alaskans,” she said. “I found out how many shared values we had, even though we may have different party affiliations.”
Geissel was able to convince enough voters to either vote for her or list her as their second choice preference in order to secure her re-election. Though her refusal to move further to the right has brought ire from her fellow party members.
“I am definitely regarded by Republicans as a liberal, and the party meetings do not welcome me,” said Geissel. “But I still embrace Republican values of free market capitalism, of local control, of fair elections, balanced budgets. I have not changed my party affiliation. I'm still, I guess, what I would call a Ronald Reagan Republican.”
She pointed to the 2022 Alaska general election where voters elected a conservative governor, a more moderate Republican Senator in Lisa Murkowski, and the state’s first Democrat to hold the sole Congressional seat in 50 years with Mary Peltola.
Geissel and supporters of RCV point to these results as proof the system works in bringing in a variety of viewpoints, but it’s these same reasons that opponents are already seeking to repeal the measure.
Phil Izon, author of the ranked choice voting repeal in Alaska, said it was the confusion of his grandfather that caused him to delve deeper into RCV and decide, in his mind, it wasn’t a sufficient way to conduct elections.
“It's just horribly done, like nobody should have ever done a pick one primary, ranked choice voting in the same election. It's just absolutely crazy,” said Izon. “And so people made mistakes on their ballots. And so you had tons of people that voted for just one person when they were supposed to rank on that ballot.”
Izon said his issues with RCV and open primaries are voter confusion, the high cost of implementing the process and educating voters, ballots being thrown out if someone only selects one candidate who is eliminated, and what he claims is manipulation by the political parties.
“A sizable chunk of the population that, no matter how much you try to educate, they're not going to get the system. And that's very concerning,” Izon said. “And so, like my grandfather, to this day, he still can't explain to you how ranked choice voting works.”
Izon’s ballot measure has already survived court challenges and is a grassroots effort compared to the money coming into Alaska supporting RCV.
He said he also has the backing of former lieutenant governors (who conduct elections in Alaska) and other state politicians and former politicians including former Governor Sarah Palin. It’s believed Palin and the Republican party lost their 2022 bid for Congress due, in part, to RCV.
Izon also expressed concern that the parties could manipulate the process by encouraging one of their own to drop out and shore up votes if two Democrats or two Republicans advance.
Forrest Nabors, associate professor and chair of the political science department at the University of Alaska Anchorage, said this fear has already materialized in Alaska elections.
Nabors said the party with the most discipline will perform best under RCV, which, in his view, are the Alaska Democrats.
“In 2022 for the United States House of Representatives, we have one seat and four candidates made the second round. The second Democrat dropped out. So all the Democrat votes were concentrated on the Democrat, one Democrat, while the Republicans divided their votes on the other two candidates, neither of whom the party could induce to drop out,” Nabors said. “Less party discipline. And they were punished for it because the Democrat was sent to the Congress.”
Nabors said it’s difficult for him to hide his bias on this issue and hoped Alaska voters would repeal open primaries and RCV.
As a knock against the process, he said parties can choose candidates who appeal to the opposing party’s moderates in order to lure them into ranking them more favorably and helping them get elected.
But, it should be noted, that very argument is also made by proponents of open primaries and RCV for why the process is better. They suggest it brings more candidates to the center and lessens the influence of the major parties.
In Colorado, the state Democratic and Republican parties have come out against Proposition 131, but Democratic Governor Jared Polis has issued his support.
Email senior reporter Brett Forrest at brett.forrest@koaa.com. Follow @brettforrestTVon X and Brett Forrest News on Facebook.
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