A pair of citizen-backed initiatives will likely appear on the general election ballot in November, including one seeking to repeal Alaska’s voting system, state election officials said Feb. 27.
After a monthlong review, the state Division of Elections made the initial assessment that separate groups had gathered enough signatures to place the two questions on the ballot. Voters will be asked if they want to overturn Alaska’s ranked-choice voting and open-primary system; and whether they support increasing the minimum wage and amending state law to mandate paid sick leave for many workers.
The initiative opposing ranked-choice voting was organized by allies of some Alaska Republicans who have raised concerns about how the new voting system hurts the ability of conservative GOP candidates to defeat more moderate opponents. They also claim the system is confusing, disenfranchising some voters.
In 2022, Alaska became only the second state to use ranked-choice voting in congressional elections, following Maine.
Supporters of Alaska’s voting system have filed several complaints against the organizers of the initiative, accusing its leaders of repeatedly violating the state’s campaign ethics requirements.
The organizers of the initiative were fined by Alaska’s campaign ethics commission more than $94,000 in January for several campaign ethics violations. Still, the commission allowed the ballot initiative organizers to carry on with their signature-gathering effort.
According to the office of Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who oversees Alaska’s elections, the ranked-choice voting opponents collected nearly 37,000 qualified signatures, meeting threshold requirements in 34 out of 40 House districts.
Under state law, each initiative petition was required to collect 26,705 qualified signatures from residents in at least 30 of the 40 House districts.
The anti-ranked choice voting group, Alaskans for Honest Elections, reported raising $60,000 in the last quarter of 2023. All of that funding was funneled through the Ranked Choice Education Association, a church formed by the leaders of the ballot measure when they launched their campaign. The Alaska Public Offices Commission determined that funneling campaign contributions through the church illegally concealed the true source of the money.
Alaskans for Better Elections — a group supporting Alaska’s ranked choice voting system and open primaries — reported contributions totaling nearly $400,000 in the last three months of 2023, most of which from out-of-state groups and half of it in non-monetary donations of staff time or services.
That group also raised large sums ahead of the 2020 election, when Alaskans narrowly approved ranked choice voting and open primaries through a ballot measure.
The second ballot initiative — backed by the state’s largest labor group — would gradually increase Alaska’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2027. It would also provide employees with guaranteed paid sick leave and prohibit employers from compelling employees to attend meetings regarding religious and political matters, a tactic sometimes used to dissuade workers from unionizing.
The ballot group submitted more than 34,000 signatures, meeting requirements in 36 out of 40 districts, according to Dahlstrom’s office.
The ballot group, called Better Jobs for Alaska, has so far reported raising more than $850,000, including $100,000 in the last quarter of 2023. Almost all the funding came from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a left-leaning Washington, D.C.-based organization that has also supported Alaska’s current voting system.
The Division of Elections said it was still in the process of verifying all signatures submitted by both groups before finalizing the ballot questions.
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