Tag Archives: RCV

“A Setback for Election Reformers?”

primaries, ,

Walter Olson at Cato has the following reflection on the recent round of election reform in which he cautions commentators to distinguish “ambitious” reforms that “abolish[] party primaries and then employ[] RCV in a general election” (like in Alaska) from more moderate efforts to introduce rank-choice voting into the existing party primary system.

“On the whole, RCV finds more of a footing in places where politics is dominated by one party—large cities are the model case—and where reformers can pitch it as a way to make primaries work better.”

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“Ranked choice voting and open primaries retained in Alaska after final ballot count”

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An update on the Alaska ballot initiative from the Anchorage Daily News. The total ballot count in the end was 340,510. The repeal effort appears to have failed by 664 votes.

“A coalition of left-leaning and moderate legislators in the Alaska House has announced its plans to form a majority in the coming legislative session.

Members of the coalition — which is slated to include mostly Democrats and independents alongside two GOP lawmakers — have indicated they hope that additional Republicans will join. But those Republicans have not committed to joining such a coalition as they await the fate of Alaska’s open primary system.”

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Shawn McCutcheon is Back

campaign finance,

Shawn McCutcheon: People running in races with ranked choice voting states should be allowed to accept several times the legal limit.

On August 7, the Commission made public an advisory opinion request from Shaun McCutcheon. The requestor asks whether for purposes of the Federal Election Campaign Act’s contribution limits, the first round of Maine’s 2024 election for U.S. Senate, which involves ranked-choice voting, constitutes a general election, and each subsequent round, if any, is a distinct runoff election and entitled to its own contribution limit. The Commission will accept written comments on the request during the 10-day period following publication of the request (no later than August 19) and must issue a response no later than 60 days after the receipt of the complete request, that is, by September 21, 2024.

Thank you to Bret Kappel for bringing this to our attention.

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“Measure aimed at repealing Alaska’s ranked voting system still qualifies for ballot, officials say”

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Washington Post: 

JUNEAU, Alaska — An initiative aimed at repealing Alaska’s ranked choice voting system still has sufficient signatures to qualify for the November ballot, attorneys for the state said in court filings Tuesday, days after a judge disqualified some of the booklets used to gather signatures.

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