A measure to repeal Alaska’s nonpartisan primaries and ranked choice general elections will be on the ballot this year, but exactly how it's worded remains a hot dispute.
Both sides of the repeal — pro- and anti — have now sued the Division of Elections to try to change the language, because how voters interpret what they see on the ballot can affect the outcome.
Repeal Now filed its lawsuit last week. Consultant Greg Powers said the wording the state proposes is more complicated than it should be.
“It makes it sound like we're doing other things in this ballot measure," Powers said. "But really, all the ballot measure does is return Alaska elections to how they were before ranked choice voting, before that ranked choice voting proposition passed. So we would like the ballot language to reflect that.”
Attorney Scott Kendall is the architect of Alaska’s current voting method, adopted by voters in 2020. In addition to opening the primary and allowing ranked choice, the 2020 reforms require more campaign disclosures, to reduce so-called “dark money.”
Kendall wants the ballot language to specify that the repeal would get rid of all those things.
“The opponents of election reform want to, first of all, maximize their attacks on ranked choice voting, while at the same time minimizing that they want to repeal open primaries, where every voter can vote for every candidate," he said. "And they definitely want to minimize or eliminate mention of the specific campaign finance repeals they want to do.”
Kendall filed a lawsuit last month, on behalf of state Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel and other supporters of the 2020 election reforms.
He dropped the suit weeks later because, he said, the Division of Elections considered his detailed complaint and revised the proposed language.
“It's not exactly the way I'd write it, but it was very much more accurate language about what the ballot measure will do," he said.
The new wording, though, prompted the sponsors of the repeal to sue. They contend the ballot language risks confusing voters. Among other changes, Repeal Now wants the state to put the term “ranked choice voting” in the ballot title.
Voters will decide several election-related matters this year. An initiative to reinstate limits on campaign contributions is set for the August ballot. The repeal of the 2020 election changes and an initiative reiterating that only citizens can vote will also appear on the ballot, likely in November.
