Mark Cable for the Arizona Republic
Opinion: Maybe Sarah Palin lost in Alaska. But look at how many other Republicans won in that election The same can happen here.
Members of the Arizona Freedom Caucus are currently trying to pass bills in the Arizona Legislature to ban ranked-choice voting.
Part of their argument is that these reforms are a scam to defeat Republican candidates. Republicans critical of ranked choice cite Sarah Palin’s loss of Alaska’s one congressional seat.
However, before throwing out an entire system, it would seem logical to look at more than one race.
A quick search of Ballotpedia shows the following results for this past election in Alaska. These races were held with a top-four open primary and ranked-choice voting. This past November, Alaskans elected:
A Republican governor.
A Republican lieutenant governor.
A Republican for U.S. Senate.
Eleven Republicans to the state Senate.
Twenty-one Republicans to the state House.
If ranked-choice voting is designed to defeat Republicans, it doesn’t seem to work very well.
To learn more about the benefits of open primaries and ranked-choice voting, please visit https://www.voterchoicearizona.org/ or https://www.savedemocracyaz.com.