A ballot measure that would repeal Alaska’s ranked choice voting and open primary system has very narrowly failed, according to final unofficial results released Wednesday by the Division of Elections.
The final margin for Ballot Measure 2, pending certification, is 664 out of 340,110 votes, with “No” outpacing “Yes” 50.1% to 49.9%.
Ah, thanks for finding the facts. So the first election had a surprise result. It worked exactly as designed, and either people didn’t understand that could happen or they’ve since been convinced it was contrary to what they wanted.
Given the whole goal of RCV is that outcomes are satisfying to the largest number of people you’d think this result wouldn’t have had a backlash like what we’ve seen.
I’d bet the losing party was behind the measure, and I’m somewhat happy to see it fail. I hope that means the majority of people were in fact satisfied.