Brett Huber: SB 64 is lipstick on the pig of ranked-choice voting

By BRETT HUBER

March 22, 2026 – Let’s cut through the noise on Senate Bill 64: It doesn’t come close to fixing Alaska’s broken election system so much as it props it up.

This bill is lipstick on the pig that is Ranked-Choice Voting, an abomination already infecting Alaska’s elections. The bill makes no attempt to fix the real problem.

Alaskans are frustrated, confused, and fed up with RCV, and instead of repealing it, SB 64 tries to tweak around the edges while quietly handing more power to government insiders. SB 64 avoids the problem altogether.

Then there’s the dangerous aspect nobody’s talking about: SB 64 shifts even more control over elections to the next governor and unelected bureaucrats in the Division of Elections.

Rather than empowering voters, it empowers people behind closed doors.

Why I oppose Senate Bill 64, the election bill that Democrats love

Remember, we have no idea who the next governor and lieutenant governor will be. Or the next one after that. So why on earth would we lock in more centralized authority now? Why would we give a blank check on election control to someone we haven’t even elected yet?

Then there’s the data … if you can even call it that.

SB 64 leans on questionable sources, Outside influence, and numbers that don’t reflect the reality Alaskans are seeing at the ballot box. What Alaskans see is ballots getting tossed. Races and elections dragging on due to ranked-choice voting. Voters confused about how their vote actually gets counted.

Instead of admitting the system is flawed, the sponsors of SB 64 are doubling down with half-baked “fixes” backed by shaky analysis and who-knows-what funding sources.

Let’s be honest: This isn’t about improving elections. SB 64 is all about protecting RCV from being repealed.

Because the people pushing SB 64 know something: They know if Alaskans get a clean, up-or-down vote on RCV, it’s history.

So this bill gives political cover. It lets them say, “Hey, we fixed it,” while keeping the same badly broken system in place.

Alaskans deserve better than that and should expect more from our lawmakers. Because if a system is confusing, untrusted, and built on questionable data, you don’t patch it. You scrap it.

SB 64 prolongs the real problem. And worse, it concentrates power in ways that should concern everyone, no matter where you stand politically.

If you want election integrity, transparency, and real accountability, there’s a simple answer:

Don’t dress it up, tweak it, or put lipstick on it. Repeal it.

Brett Huber is state director for Americans for Prosperity-Alaska and a longtime Alaskan.

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