Alaska voters aren't ditching ranked choice voting, top-four primaries

A ballot measure that would have repealed Alaska's nonpartisan primary system and ranked choice voting has failed, according to an overnight race call by the Associated Press.

This is the second time Alaskans voted down an effort to repeal the state's unique election system, which voters first approved in 2020. A repeal effort in 2024 also failed narrowly.

This year, though, Alaska's system was under intense nationwide scrutiny, due to the inclusion of two candidates with the same name on the four-person U.S. Senate general election ballot. That race appears likely to move on to a ranked-choice tabulation.

"Alaskans of all political stripes have spoken: They want the freedom to vote for any candidate, regardless of party, in every taxpayer-funded election," Nick Troiano — the executive director of Unite America, a philanthropic venture fund that invests in nonpartisan electoral reform — said in a statement before the AP race call. "At a time when most general elections across the country are essentially coronations, the Last Frontier is showing that a better way is possible. It is time to honor the voters' decision and move forward."

Just a few states have nonpartisan primary systems that allow voters of all political affiliations to vote on the same primary ballot. While California and Washington's systems allow the top two vote getters to advance to the general election, Alaska's system allows the top four candidates to move on. Then, if no candidate gets a majority of the general election vote, ranked choice voting is used to determine the winner.

Opponents of Alaska's elections say the current system is confusing and can be manipulated.

Those opponents seized on this year's closely watched Senate race, in which an independent candidate named Dan Sullivan was alleged to be a Democratic-backed spoiler recruited to siphon votes that were meant for the Republican incumbent, also named Dan Sullivan.

Democrats denied recruiting the independent Sullivan, who made the top-four general election ballot and has defended his candidacy.

However, proponents of Alaska's system have said that the state's ranked choice voting system could blunt the effects of any confusion. Voters had the ability to rank both Dan Sullivans and not rank Democrat Mary Peltola, for example.