Jason Grenn, Executive Director of Alaskans for Better Elections was the featured speaker at the joint Kenai/Soldotna Chamber of Commerce Luncheon on Wednesday. He spoke on how Alaska voters made history becoming the first state to adopt top-four nonpartisan primaries and the second in favor of ranked-choice voting. He discussed the major changes, how the public could learn more about the changes, went through the 2022 special election and how ranked-choice voting works.
In November 2020, Alaskans approved a ballot measure that takes effect this year. With Ranked Choice Voting, voters have the option to rank candidates in the general election in order of preference. It aims to give Alaskans more choice and power on election day. Additionally, with this ballot measure, it permanently opens Alaska’s primaries as more than 60% of Alaska’s registered voters who don’t have an affiliation with either of Alaska’s two major parties.
In discussing the upcoming election to replace the late Congressman Don Young’s seat, Grenn says:
“You’ll get a ballot in the mail in June. It’ll have 48 different candidates on that one piece of paper. Lots of choices, but voters will just pick one of those 48. They’ll mail that in, no ranked choice on that June ballot. Just fill in one oval out of those 48, mail it back in. The top four vote getters, out of that race, regardless of their party affiliation will move onto the special general election, which will be in August.
He adds:
“The state of Alaska has chosen to put both the special general election on the same date and the same ballot as the regular primary election, lots of different logistical challenges and other things, but in terms of efficiency and wanting voter turnout to be as high as possible. They are combining those two elections to be on the same date. When you go vote in August, you’ll have an opportunity to rank candidates for the replacement seat for Don Young and then you will, in the Primary race, you’ll be selecting one candidate for the other five races that’ll be on your ballot.”
Grenn clarifies:
“One of the pieces of information we try to share a lot is ranked choice voting, it’s supposed to be kind of an empowerment feeling for a voter. They can rank up to four candidates on the ballot, but they don’t have to. Your vote will still count even if you just rank one candidate. We tell people that they should not rank any candidate that they don’t support. If you like two of the four, that’s great, fill in one and two. If you like one of the four, just fill in one. If you like four of the four, fill in all four, but we really want people to feel that their ranking is based on who they want to see in office and not feeling like they have to rank someone that they don’t want to.”
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