An Act Restoring Political Party Primaries, Ending Ranked-Choice General Elections, and Repealing Recent Campaign Finance Laws
Alaska publishes no official yes/no meaning statements; Legislative Affairs Agency neutral summary in explanatory_statement.
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This act would get rid of open primary elections, where all candidates appear on one ballot. It would also get rid of ranked-choice general elections. It would bring back political party primaries and single-choice general elections. It would also repeal certain campaign finance rules that were added by a 2020 ballot measure. Elections would occur as they did before open primaries and ranked choice voting. In the primary election, voters would choose a party’s ballot, unless prohibited by the party’s bylaws. They would only vote for candidates on that ballot. The winning candidate from each primary would be the party’s nominee. In the general election, voters would vote for only one candidate in each race. The candidate with the most votes would win. Party petitions, special runoff elections, and other processes would return. Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor would run separately in political party primaries and then together in the general election. This act would also repeal campaign finance rules that were passed in 2020. It would remove the limits on donations to joint campaigns for governor and lieutenant governor. It would remove limits and disclosure rules under current law, including for digital ads, out-of-state donations, undisclosed donations, and the true source of donations. It would change the meaning of a campaign expenditure and remove some fines. Should this initiative become law?
Not published by the state
Not published by the state
This Act will reverse changes made by voters in 2020 to state elections. The Act changes the rules for primary elections. The Act ends the top four open primary. The primary will be a party primary. The director of elections will make a ballot for each party. Each party ballot will list the candidates running for that party’s nomination. The Act changes the campaign finance rules. The Act removes limits on contributions to a joint campaign for governor and lieutenant governor. The Act allows entities to accept more than $2,000 in dark money. The Act lets people contribute money through a third party without disclosing the true source. The Act ends a requirement that a “paid for by” message appear during the entirety of a communication. The Act ends a requirement that a disclaimer appear on ads paid for by an outside source. A party will choose who may run and vote in its primary. In the primary a voter may vote only one party’s ballot. The person who gets the most votes in a party primary is the party’s nominee. The party nominees will move on to the general election. Other candidates may petition to be on the general election ballot. Reenacts unconstitutional law that a candidate must register as a member of a political party to run in that party’s primary. Reenacts unconstitutional laws requiring a separate ballot for each political party. The Act changes the process used to fill vacancies in office. The Act ends special primaries. A party will use a petition to nominate its candidate for a special election to fill a vacancy. Other candidates may petition to be on the ballot. The Act adds a special runoff to some races. The Act sets the timeframes for special elections and special runoff elections. The governor will call a special runoff if no candidate in a special election for congress gets more than half the votes. A ballot measure may appear on a special runoff ballot. When the governor appoints a person to fill a vacancy in the state legislature, the governor will appoint a member of the same party, if any, that nominated the predecessor. The Act changes the ballot for general elections. The ballot will show a candidate’s party designation, if any. Write-in candidates for governor and lieutenant governor will be members of the same party or group. The Act changes voting in general elections. The Act ends ranked-choice voting. A voter will vote for one candidate for each office; the candidate with the most votes wins. The Act will change the definition of “political party”. Members of the governor’s party and members of the party that received the second most votes in the last election for governor will serve on some state boards. The Governor must appoint two members of the Alaska Public Offices Commission from lists made by these parties. A candidate may appoint a poll watcher if the candidate does not represent a party.
Multi Agency Cost Summary Agency Alaska Public Offices Commission Office of the Lieutenant Governor Office of the Lieutenant Governor – Division of Elections TOTAL Cost $6,975 $15,000 $2,608,983 $2,630,958 Estimate of Costs to the Alaska Public Offices Commission As required by AS 15.45.090(a)(4), the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) has prepared the following statement of costs to implement the proposed ballot initiative. The proposed initiative seeks to repeal provisions of Ballot Measure 2 passed by voters in the 2020 state general election. If passed the initiative would repeal certain reporting requirements for persons engaged in independent expenditure activities and their contributors; and certain identifier requirements for political communications. Approximately 60 programming hours will be required to design, test, and deploy changes to the agency’s online filing program. Estimated Cost: ~$3,975 Approximately 30 staff hours will be required to revise, publish notice, and adopt regulations needed to implement the measure. Estimated Cost: ~$3,000 $6,975 Estimated cost to amend APOC’s online filing program and adopt new regulations Estimate of Costs to the Office of the Lieutenant Governor and the Division of Elections As required by AS 15.45.090(a)(3), the Office of the Lieutenant Governor and the Division of Elections has prepared the following statement of costs to implement the proposed ballot initiative. Lieutenant Governor Under Alaska Statute 15.45.195, at least 30 days before the election at which an initiative is to appear on the ballot, the lieutenant governor or a designee of the lieutenant governor shall hold two or more public hearings concerning the initiative in each judicial district of the state. Each public hearing under this section shall include the written or oral testimony of one supporter and one opponent of the initiative. $15,000 Estimated cost of travel and LIO services for Lt. Governor and one staff member Division of Elections The minimum cost to the Division of Elections associated with certification of the initiative application and review of the initiative petition, excluding legal costs to the state and the costs to the state of any challenge to the validity of the petition, is estimated to be $2,608,983. Estimate by Category Personal Services Printing Services Voter Education Language Assistance TOTAL $81,626 $1,505 $2,500,000 $25,852 $2,608,983 Analysis of Fiscal Impact of Ballot Initiative Initiative Petition Review Personal Services: Six temporary employees to review signatures for 2,520 hours. Estimated cost: $57,312 Certification of the initiative application and review of the initiative petition estimated for 504 hours. Estimated cost: $24,314. Printing Services: Printing service expenses associated with certification of the initiative application and review of initiative petition. Printing of voter booklets: $1,505 Public Education Campaign A public education campaign will need to take place to inform candidates, voters, and election workers of the changes to the primary and general election processes. Estimated cost: $2,500,000 Language Assistance Estimated cost of translating the ballot measure language for audio and sample ballots and, Official Election Pamphlet pro statement, Official Election Pamphlet con statement and Official Election Pamphlet neutral summary into languages required by the Toyukak Settlement and Section 203 of the Federal Voting Rights Act. Estimated cost: $25,852 TOTAL all categories: $2,630,958 General Elections, and Repealing Recent Campaign Finance Laws
Voting Yes on Ballot Measure 2 restores Alaska’s elections to how they were before 2020: 1. End Ranked Choice Voting 2. Bring Back Open Primaries 3. Restore Pre-2020 Campaign Disclosure Laws (1) Yes on 2 Ends Ranked Choice Voting • Dark Money: Out-of-state dark money groups have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to sell Alaskans on ranked choice voting. • Banned in 19 States: Dark money billionaires from the lower 48 are losing the fight for ranked choice voting all over the country. They hope that, if they spend enough dark money here, Alaskans will keep their failed system. • Complicated Ballots: Ranked choice ballots are a complicated mess. Ending ranked choice voting will return to simple, One Person, One Vote elections. • Trashed Ballots: Thousands of ballots don’t count every year. Ending ranked choice voting will ensure that election results represent the will of all voters, not just the ones who properly fill out an overly-complex ballot. • Manipulated Results: Due to low turnout, trashed ballots, and incorrectly filled out ballots, the results of every election are not representative of Alaskans. This harms Alaskans, but helps candidates supported by the out-ofstate dark money. • High Risk: Ranked choice voting has created many documented cases of election irregularities. Worse, it is impossible to verify those questionable results by human hand count - instead we have to just trust a computer algorithm. • Waiting Weeks for Results: Results already take forever to collect from across Alaska. Ranked choice voting makes that problem even worse by delaying results for weeks. (2) Yes on 2 Brings Back Open Primaries • Bring Back Open Primaries: Yes on 2 will *not* close Alaska’s primaries. That’s a lie. Our primaries will return to the pre-2020 system that was open to 100% of Alaskans - including those who are not members of any party. • Alaska’s History of Open Primaries: A nonpartisan study by the Bipartisan Policy Center rated Alaska’s elections before the 2020 Jungle Primary system as “Open.” That’s because they were Open to 100% of Alaskan voters. A Yes vote on 2 restores that same Open Primary system. • Dark Money Lies: The same out-of-state money falsely claiming that Yes on 2 will close Alaska’s primaries actually funded the nonpartisan study that rated our elections as “Open.” So, they know better. They must just think Alaskans are dumb. • End the Jungle Primary: Yes on 2 will end the complicated jungle primary system that resulted in 17 candidates for governor this year and 48 candidates for Congress in 2022. (3) Yes on 2 Restores Pre-2020 Campaign Disclosure Laws • Dark Money is Still Flowing: The same out-of-state billionaires claiming that a Yes on 2 will cause dark money to flow into Alaska have spent tens of millions of dollars in dark money to protect ranked choice voting. • Defeat Ranked Choice Dark Money: Yes on 2 will defeat the largest source of dark money Alaska has ever seen - the tens of millions of dollars spent to support ranked choice voting.
Mead Treadwell, former Lt. Governor of Alaska; Craig Campbell, former Lt. Governor of Alaska; Loren Leman, former Lt. Governor of Alaska
Measure 2 would flood Alaska with untraceable campaign cash, take away our freedom to vote for any candidate we choose, and allow politicians to win without a majority of the vote. To stop Dark Money and to stop political insiders from taking away your right to vote for who you want, VOTE NO. Alaska’s election system has three parts that together make us unique from any other state in the country: • Dark Money disclosure laws give us the right to know who is spending in our elections and require outside spenders to publicly disclose the true source of their funding. • Open primaries ensure political parties do not control our primary elections and that every Alaskan has the right to vote for whichever candidates we want. • Ranked choice voting ensures that the winning candidate must earn the support of a majority of the voters. Ballot Measure 2 would get rid of all three parts. Why are the sponsors of this initiative ONLY talking about repealing ranked choice voting, with no mention of the flood of anonymous campaign cash coming our way if it passes? Because they are trying to hide what this measure is really about: • Ballot Measure 2 gets rid of campaign finance transparency requirements and allows secret, undisclosed spending in Alaska’s elections. • Ballot Measure 2 also gives political party bosses the right to deny unaffiliated voters the ability to vote in primary elections. 60%+ of Alaskan voters are unaffiliated. Voting No protects voter freedom: • Voting No says NO to Outside Billionaires buying our elections with no accountability. • Voting No affirms that Alaskans have the right to know who is spending in our elections. • Voting No protects every Alaskans’ freedom to vote in every election. A few questions to consider before you vote: • Do you think we should have LESS transparency in our elections? • Do you think names of those spending money in Alaska’s elections should be kept SECRET? • Do you think we should give more power and influence to political party insiders and their outside billionaire donors? • Do you think we should allow political parties to ban 60%+ of Alaskans from voting in primary elections just because they prefer not to join a party? If your answers to any of these questions is NO, you should vote NO on Ballot Measure 2. This is the third time in six years that Alaskans are being asked to vote on our election system. Special interest groups and political party insiders are demanding we waste more time and money on this costly repeat ballot measure so that they can take power away from the voters and back for themselves. This issue is not Democrats vs. Republicans. It is Alaskans vs. Outside Billionaires and political insiders. Vote No on Measure 2 to stop Dark Money and protect Alaskans’ independence.
Nicole Borromeo, President, ANCSA Regional Association; Sen. Cathy Giessel, Senate Majority Leader (R); Joelle Hall, President, Alaska AFL-CIO
Both columns use the same layout. Text is quoted from the official state guide. Views expressed belong to the argument authors.