Alaska ranked-choice ballots unlikely to suffice for Republican
The gist
Alaska's ranked-choice count found Republican voters ranked too few candidates to lift a GOP Senate candidate.
The uncalled Senate race and a repeal measure will decide how Alaska picks winners.
How it unfolded
- Oct 28, 2026The New York Times reported Democratic operatives, including on the Peltola campaign, were involved in a scheme to recruit Senate candidates to pull votes from the GOP incumbent; Gov. Mike Dunleavy ordered a criminal probe.
- Nov 1, 2026U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason dismissed the DOJ lawsuit seeking to block certification of the Senate race, finding no workable plan for segregating ballots while preserving ballot secrecy.
- Nov 2, 2026Votebeat reported that in the 2024 general election, 60% of voters chose only one candidate and did not use the ranked choice system.
Key terms
- ranked-choice
- A voting method in which voters rank candidates by preference and votes are tallied in rounds until a winner emerges.
- Cast Vote Record
- An electronic record of a voter's selections in an election, created when ballots are scanned or votes are cast electronically.
- open primaries
- An election in which voters of a political party choose that party's candidate for an upcoming general election.
Source: Wikipedia