Alaska shows how RCV systems are rigged

Alaska is the only state using a top-four, ranked-choice voting (RCV) election scheme. These rules were pushed in Alaska to help Sen. Lisa Murkowski win reelection in 2022. They were bundled into a ballot measure that was heavily backed by dark money and marketed to voters as a ban on dark money. In other words, Alaska’s novel election rules were changed for blatantly political reasons and by misleading voters. Thus, it’s unsurprising that the system also helps other political machines trying to confuse voters and manipulate outcomes.

The New York Times this week exposed that Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign staff, with her knowledge, sought out spoiler candidates in hopes of confusing voters and diluting conservative votes. The scheme “involved secret trips to far-flung Alaskan communities and the appearance of a mysterious Midwestern operative, who traversed the state using a fake name.”

It also involved the Peltola campaign’s lawyers, as well as senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which directs the party’s campaign strategy in Senate races across the country. From Washington to Anchorage, those advisers participated in regular conversations about the effort and even considered forming a new political party to draw conservatives onto the ballot.

The Times story explains that “Alaska’s voting system makes it especially easy to add spoilers to the ballot.” This effect is basically why Murkowski’s political operation wanted the top-four RCV system. It prevents parties from nominating a single candidate to represent them on the ballot. Instead of a party vetting process, the top-four primary is a popularity contest that often extends to very unpopular—and unknown—candidates.

The top-four process can be manipulated by trying to get unserious and confusing candidates on the ballot. In Alaska, Peltola’s dirty-tricks team found a man with the same first and last name as her opponent, incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan. This “Decoy Dan” is the focus of the New York Times story (and was the topic of my article, “How to cheat with ranked-choice voting.”)

Alaska’s election system has also been manipulated by pressuring candidates to drop out. The Peltola politicos also did this, pushing a fellow Democrat off the ballot so that he was replaced with the Republican who had finished fifth in the top-four primary. The fact that partisans frequently do this exposes a false claim of ranked-choice voting advocates: They say that there are no spoilers in their system, but the political operatives who use it know better.

Alaska’s top-four ranked-choice election process has not produced any obvious benefits. Election results are slower, turnout is lower, and so many voters are frustrated that repeal nearly won two years ago and is on the ballot again. Now the Peltola campaign provides the clearest example yet that the system encourages partisan dirty tricks and corrupt efforts to confuse voters.