“Mary Peltola, a Democratic former state lawmaker, won a special election to fill Alaska's sole U.S. House of Representatives seat, becoming the first Alaska Native to represent the state in Congress… She defeated Republican former Governor Sarah Palin by 51.47% to 48.53%… The election is the first one run under the state's new ranked choice system, with voters listing candidates in order of preference on the ballot.” Reuters
The right is critical of both ranked-choice voting and Palin’s campaign.
“The worst aspect of a ranked-choice system is that the candidate who gets the most votes in the first round doesn’t necessarily win, and that’s what happened last night. The system effectively punishes a candidate who takes stances that are clear and bold, but potentially controversial. This also means the system effectively rewards candidates who are wishy-washy and inoffensive…
“[It’s] an election system that effectively punishes the bold and rewards the bland… The advantage of the familiar ‘first past the post’ system — besides that it is familiar — is that it forces voters to think about what they prioritize, and express one clear decision: ‘I like this candidate the best.’ (Or alternatively, ‘I hate this candidate the least.’) Under ‘first past the post,’ no one cares who you rank second, or third, or fourth. It’s an election, not a buffet table… There is value in periodically telling the electorate, pick one, and be ready to live with the consequences.”
Jim Geraghty, National Review
“Palin’s problem in the ranked-choice tabulation phase was simply that only half of Begich’s voters preferred her to Peltola: 27,659 out of 52,504, and 16,399 Begich voters, 31 percent of the total, affirmatively chose Peltola over Palin as their second choice. But what about the 10,726 Begich voters whose ballots were exhausted? Palin needed fewer than half of them to overcome Peltola’s lead. Had the race been a head-to-head choice, would they all have stayed home? Did some of them misunderstand the system? We can’t know…
“The fundamental American system of elections has a basic simplicity that inspires confidence. The essential model is that each party picks a candidate, there is a choice between the two, and whoever gets the most votes wins. All you need to do is look at the totals for the top two, and you can see that. At the presidential level, this is done in 50 statewide races (plus D.C.) rather than aggregating those races nationally, for the same reasons why members of the Senate and House are elected by the people of districts or states, but the principle is the same…
“We should not mess with what works simply because we think that tweaking the system in ways that look clever in a political-science class will have predictably good effects.”
Dan McLaughlin, National Review
“Palin’s loss was nonetheless entirely due to her own deficiencies. She started the race with strongly negative poll ratings, which only worsened as the campaign continued. She clearly has the loyal support of many conservatives, but it’s hard to win an election when 60 percent of all voters disapprove of you. This dismal fact means that she could easily have lost even under a traditional primary system…
“She rarely appeared at events in Alaska, choosing instead to attend out-of-state fundraisers and CPAC Texas. Two weeks before the election, she didn’t even bother to respond to a request from the Anchorage Daily News, the state’s largest newspaper, for a written list of priorities should she prevail. Voters recognize when you’re not that into them…“Alaska Republicans now face a clear fact: Vote Palin, get Peltola. They should forgo complaining about the system and instead use it to build a coalition between the two Republicans’ backers rather than attack one another to the Democrats’ benefit.”
Henry Olsen, Washington Post
The left supports ranked-choice voting and praises Peltola.
The left supports ranked-choice voting and praises Peltola.
“Ranked-choice voting aspires to stifle the ascent of extreme candidates… More than sixty per cent of Alaskans don’t affiliate with any major party, and the state has a long history of electing independent governors and senators through write-in campaigns. ‘The word ‘primary’ is used as a verb now—as a threat,’ Rebecca Braun, a former Alaska policy adviser, told me. ‘If you have a moderate Republican who is working in a bipartisan way, the Party will say, we’re going to primary you.’ Ranked-choice voting, she went on, ‘allows you to vote for your actual favorite candidate and then hedge your bet.’”
Antonia Hitchens, New Yorker
“It’s not entirely clear things would have turned out differently with the traditional system had Palin won a Republican primary, then faced Peltola. A July poll from Alaska Survey Research showed Palin with a 37-60 favorable/unfavorable rating while relatively little-known former legislator Peltola rang in at 37-16. Peltola hit some progressive themes as a general-election candidate including support for abortion rights, ocean productivity, and food security. But as the Associated Press noted, she was able to rise above the fray as Palin and Begich pounded each other.”
Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine
“[I asked Peltola] which issue in her platform most excited her. ‘Salmon management and security,’ she said. ‘I’m pro-fish.’ If you’re unsure what it means to be ‘pro-fish,’ you’re not alone. It’s an uncommon identifier in U.S. politics, mainly because fish-related legislation is not a hot-button issue in most parts of the country. But in Alaska, where fishing is both a major jobs-producing industry and an essential mode of subsistence for indigenous Alaskans, people have strong opinions on fish policy…
“[Peltola] worked as a ‘herring and salmon technician’ for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game while she was in college. And until recently, she served for several years as the executive director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission… She has [been] warning about the foreign and out-of-state corporate trawlers that are destroying salmon hauls for Alaska fishers. Peltola’s website includes an entire page detailing the diminishing salmon runs and the ‘total ecosystem collapse’ that threatens the livelihoods of subsistence fishers and commercial fishers alike. It can’t be said enough: In Alaska, fish bring strange bedfellows together across party lines.”
Christina Cauterucci, Slate
“Peltola’s remarkable victory instantly sparked complaints from Republicans that the election had been ‘rigged,’ echoing former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric from July. Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas immediately tweeted, ‘Ranked-choice voting is a scam to rig elections.’…
“It’s amusing to hear Republicans devoted to the Electoral College argue that the person who gets the most votes should win the election, and that anything else amounts to disenfranchisement. Everyone knew the rules of this election before it was held. A majority of Alaskan voters might have preferred to support a Republican in theory, but they did not prefer Palin, the actual Republican candidate they ended up with. States are not party fiefdoms that are inherited by whatever empty suit the Republican National Committee sticks on the ballot. A majority of Alaskan voters preferred the Democrat.”
Adam Serwer, The Atlantic