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Aug. 16 Alaska Primary Includes Special Election, Regular Primary, and Both Choose One & Ranked Choice Voting
Today’s Links

Articles:
Alaska for Better Elections –  Alaska Elections Timeline
Alaska for Better Elections – How do I vote in the primary election?
Alaska Public Media – Alaska election guide: Q&As with candidates for U.S. House, U.S. Senate and governor
Anchorage Daily News – Early voting begins in Alaska cities ahead of Aug. 16 election
Alaska Division of Elections –  Sample Ballots
Groups Taking Action:

Alaskans for Better Elections, List of Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) groups around the country,
Fair Vote

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

Alaska broke new ground in June with the first-ever “top-four” Congressional special primary to replace the late Rep. Don Young.  This was the first time Alaskan’s used ranked choice voting, which winnowed down a field of 48 candidates to four, including former governor Sarah Palin, tech millionaire Nick Begich III, and legislator Mary Peltola.  A fourth candidate dropped out.  

August 16th, voters return to vote on those four candidates, plus vote in their regular primary, including a U.S. Senate race with incumbent Lisa Murkowski and 18 challengers, another U.S. House race with 22 candidates, and a governor’s race with 10 candidates.  The regular primary is using conventional “choose one” voting. 

Only the special election for U.S. House will be conducted using ranked choice voting, with voters ranking the candidates in order of preference. In the special U.S. House race, if the top ranked candidate doesn’t receive 50% of the vote, the 3rd place candidate’s votes will be reassigned, weighting them according to the voters’ rankings.   

The August 16th U.S. Senate and regular U.S. House races will also be “top four” races, with the top four candidates advancing to the General Election on November 8th.   There are also 59 of 60 state house and senate races at stake.  

Alaska’s voters have embraced voting by mail, so ballots have almost two weeks to arrive and be counted after election day.   Results will not be known until September. 

More information on the August 16 election and Alaska’s ranked choice voting system are at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org  

For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl

The post ADM for Aug. 16, 2022: Aug. 16 Alaska Primary Includes Special Election, Regular Primary, and Both Choose One & Ranked Choice Voting appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

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Today’s Links
Articles:  Ballotpedia – “United States House of Representatives special election in Alaska, 2022 (June 11 top-four primary)”, Washington Post – “Alaska is having the wildest election of 2022”,  State of Alaska tutorial on Ranked Choice Voting – “ALASKA BETTER ELECTIONS IMPLEMENTATION”
Organizations Taking Action:    Alaskans for Better Elections, Fair Vote

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

You may have heard news reports about a special election in Alaska two weeks ago to replace U.S. Congressman Don Young, who died March 18th.   Most press reports focused on the 48 candidates, including former Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and North Pole City Council member Santa Claus.   But the next round of this election is more important for being a frontier in election reform.

Alaska’s June 11th special election was the first “Top Four” Congressional primary in U.S. history.   As of the June 21st final count, Sarah Palin and three other candidates advanced to a second round.  The primary was also an “open” primary, with Republicans, Democrats, third partys and independents on one ballot. 

Now, the top four candidates will face off in the combination special election general and state primary on August 16th, but this time, Ranked Choice Voting will be used by Alaskans for the first time in a statewide election.   RCV was adopted by referendum in the 2020 election, and the State of Alaska has posted sample ballots, instructions and videos to educate Alaska voters.   

After all this, the winner of the election serves out Congressman Young’s term from August 2022 to January 2023.  The midterm general election is November 8th, 2022, where incumbent U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski is running for re-election.

Links to articles on the special election and Alaska’s tutorial on Ranked Choice Voting is at our website, AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.

Granny D said, “Democracy is not something we have, it’s something we DO.” 

For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl.

The post American Democracy Minute for June 23, 2022: Forget Santa Claus; Alaska’s Special Election is Important as the Frontier for Election Reform appeared first on American Democracy Minute.