Alaska’s ranked choice voting and top-four primary are legal, judge says

Authored by alaskapublic.org and submitted by Areat
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State election officials produced a prototype of a ranked-choice ballot. (Alaska Division of Elections)

A Superior Court judge has ruled Alaska’s new ranked choice voting system and open primary are legal.

Judge Gregory Miller rejected arguments that the new election method violates the right of free association.

The legal challenge was filed by the Alaskan Independence Party, a frequent Libertarian party candidate and a Republican attorney.

Miller’s decision, if it stands, clears the way for the state to conduct the 2022 elections by the rules voters adopted last year under Ballot Measure 2.

RELATED: This lawsuit stands between Alaskans and a new ranked choice election system

The new system gives less power to political parties.

In the open primary, all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, appear on one ballot. The top four vote-getters advance to the general. On the November ballot, voters will rank the candidates, one through four. If no candidate wins a majority in the first round, the last-place finisher would be eliminated, and their ballots re-allocated to the voters’ next-choice candidate, until one wins a majority.

The plaintiffs in the case have not yet announced whether they will appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.

FrostboundGuardian on August 1st, 2021 at 14:44 UTC »

This is dope. This should be implemented everywhere.

occassionalmistakes on August 1st, 2021 at 14:32 UTC »

The biggest thing for me is that you can vote for a candidate in a party that you don't belong to, as in, you can vote for the moderates on multiple sides. This is a huge step to defang political extremism and reduce the political divide of those in power.

StankyHankyPanky69 on August 1st, 2021 at 12:53 UTC »

Now let’s get this instituted in every state. Hasten the death of the two party system, and the filibuster along with it.