Closer to funding parity in Alaska RCV repeal fight

Almost all of the big money spent in fights over ranked-choice voting (RCV) goes to push it or, in the case of Alaska, defend it from repeal campaigns. This is not hyperbole: In the last repeal fight, opponents (defending RCV) raised $15.5 million while the repeal campaign raised slightly more than $500,000. Just three billionaires appear to have pumped more than $100 million into pro-RCV campaigns in the 2024 cycle.

Now it seems that RCV’s billionaire backers may be backing off, At the same time, defenders of normal elections are improving their own fundraising.

The latest numbers from Alaska show supporters of repeal have so far raised more than $750,000. This will more than double with a reported gift of $1 million, apparently from Elon Musk. All this puts fundraising for the current repeal campaign far ahead of the previous effort, which lost by only 743 votes.

The pro-RCV campaign has raised more, but not nearly as much as it did in 2024. It has received $3.6 million from Unite America, a Denver-based group tied to leftist billionaire Kathryn Murdoch. Another $1.5 million came from a DC-based dark money group, while $150,000 came from a hard-left union in Seattle. That accounts for nearly all its fundraising.

Meanwhile, they are battling daily with stories about how their top-four RCV election scheme encourages candidates to drop out, put an incarcerated felon on a general election ballot, and has made it possible that a decoy candidate will confuse voters this November.

RCV has not revolutionized Alaska’s elections—certainly not for the better. It makes the whole process more difficult and slower. Ballots are longer. Voting takes longer. Counting starts later, and results in any close race can be delayed for weeks. There is no upshot that makes any of this worth it. Perhaps that’s why some donors are backing off RCV.