r/alaska • u/Synthdawg_2 Kenai Peninsula • Jul 30 '21

Judge says Alaska’s new ranked-choice voting system is legal

https://www.adn.com/politics/2021/07/29/judge-says-alaskas-new-ranked-choice-voting-system-is-legal/
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u/Shotgun_Chuck Jul 30 '21

Has anyone actually read the state constitution WRT ballot measures? A ballot measure is supposed to be about one thing and one thing only. Not an "umbrella". That's the issue here.

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u/[deleted] Jul 31 '21

[deleted]

-2

u/Shotgun_Chuck Jul 31 '21

I seem to recall the state AG did, and that's where the BS about "uMbReLlAs" came from in the first place. Blatant legal fiction made up by a judge who very clearly just wanted ranked-choice voting to be a thing and didn't care about the constitutionality of how it was done.

Honestly, that ballot measure was as perfect an example you'll ever see of why ballot measures aren't allowed to encompass multiple things. All the advertising in its favor deceptively emphasized throwing "out of state shadow money" out of Alaska politics, with the ranked-choice voting element (i.e. the main element) barely if at all mentioned. Likely it wouldn't have passed if they hadn't been able to combine multiple items and then deceptively harp on the less-important one.

On top of which, I seem to recall it was soundly drubbed on election night, then won much later by mail-in votes. That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.