Alaska Supreme Court Keeps Anti-Ranked Choice Voting Measure on November Ballot
An initiative seeking to repeal Alaska’s ranked choice voting and open primary systems has sufficient signatures to appear on the ballot this November, the Alaska Supreme Court affirmed yesterday. Alaskans had initially approved these electoral reforms via a 2020 ballot measure.
In yesterday’s order, the state Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling concluding that the proposed measure to roll back ranked choice voting and open primaries may be put to voters this fall.
Last month, the fate of the anti-ranked choice voting initiative, known as 22AKHE, became uncertain after Alaska Judge Christina Rankin ordered election officials to disqualify 27 booklets containing approximately 3,000 signatures in support of the measure.
Rankin gave election officials a July 24 deadline to recalculate the remaining number of signatures in order to determine whether the repeal measure still qualifies for the November 2024 ballot.
After recounting signature totals in support of the measure, state election officials informed Rankin that the measure “remains qualified” for the ballot. In order to be placed on the ballot, the initiative had to garner enough signatures from at least 75% of Alaska’s House Districts.
The petitioners then appealed the case directly to the Alaska Supreme Court, which heard oral argument on Aug. 22.
The appeal to the state’s highest court stemmed from a lawsuit filed in April by three individuals who alleged that sponsors of the ballot measure violated state law by leaving petition booklets intentionally unattended in various places of business and later instructing circulators to falsely certify the booklets.
In an earlier June 7 ruling, Rankin held that election officials did not violate state law by allowing 22AKHE sponsors to remedy signature errors in petition booklets after they were already submitted for counting.
In a subsequent ruling, on the other hand, she found that some petition booklets containing signatures must be thrown out if said booklets were either left unmonitored or were shared among multiple circulators. But Rankin ultimately declined the plaintiffs’ request to invalidate the ballot initiative in its entirety.
“There is no evidence in this case that there was a pervasive pattern of intentional, knowing, and orchestrated misconduct to warrant invalidating the 22AKHE initiative petition,” the opinion stated.
According to the Alaska Beacon, the nearly 3,000 signatures thrown out by Rankin’s second decision were unlikely to endanger 22AKHE supporters’ ability to meet the required 26,705 threshold needed to place the measure on the ballot this November.
However, there was a possibility that the ruling would have affected 22AKHE supporters’ ability to meet a separate requirement that a certain number of signatures be collected from at least 30 out of 40 of Alaska’s House Districts. Prior to the decision, backers of the initiative had the requisite number of signatures from 34 districts.
Some advocates of ranked choice voting say the system played a role in helping current U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) prevail over former Gov. Sarah Palin (R) in an August 2022 special congressional election where the system was used for the first time.
Before the state Supreme Court, the Alaska Federation of Natives argued in an amicus brief that “the open primary and ranked-choice voting give all Alaskans, including Alaska Natives, more choice in their representation and a greater voice in government.”
While ranked choice voting is said to reduce polarization and give centrist candidates a better chance of winning, the system has in some cases engendered criticism from both Republicans and Democrats alike.
Read the state Supreme Court’s order here.
Learn more about the case here.
This story was updated on Aug. 23, 2024, at 9:40 a.m. EDT to reflect the fact that the initiative to repeal ranked choice voting and open primaries will appear on the ballot this November following a ruling by the Alaska Supreme Court.