Rep. Jamie Allard: I’ll be voting ‘yes’ to repeal ranked-choice voting. Will you join me?

By REP. JAMIE ALLARD

July 19, 2026 – This November, Alaskans have another opportunity to repeal ranked-choice voting. I will vote Yes on Ballot Measure 2, and I encourage every Alaskan who wants clear, accountable elections to do the same.

Ranked-choice voting was sold as a way to improve elections. Instead, it replaced our traditional primaries with a political free-for-all.

Under the old system, political parties selected their nominees through primaries. Republican voters chose the Republican nominee. That was their right — to choose their candidate they felt supported their values. Democratic voters chose the Democratic nominee. Republicans chose theirs. Libertarians chose theirs. Candidates had to face the primary voters whose principles and platform they claimed to represent.

That system was not perfect, but it created accountability.

Alaska’s current top-four jungle primary weakens that accountability. Candidates can claim a party label — and they are now doing so — without earning the support of that party’s voters. Once elected, legislators can abandon the people who sent them to Juneau, join a coalition that works against their stated principles and then avoid a meaningful party primary in which their own voters could hold them responsible.

We have seen the results in the Alaska Legislature.

Voters elect candidates who campaign as Republicans, only to watch some of them empower Democrats and advance policies their Republican constituents never supported. Ranked-choice voting gives politicians more room to be disloyal to their base while making it harder for that base to replace them.

Political parties are not perfect. No human institution is. But parties provide voters with useful information about a candidate’s principles, priorities and governing philosophy. They also give citizens a structure through which they can organize, debate issues, recruit candidates and hold elected officials accountable.

Ranked-choice voting deliberately weakens that structure.

Alaska is increasingly an outlier. Nineteen states have now prohibited ranked-choice voting. Their lawmakers and voters have recognized that elections should be understandable, transparent and based on the simple principle that the candidate receiving the most votes wins.

My concern about Alaska’s election system also shaped my work in the Legislature.

I fought Senate Bill 64, the grotesque election bill that its supporters presented as reform. In my view, it became a deeply flawed bill that gave political cover to the existing ranked-choice voting system without fixing the fundamental problems. I opposed it, supported the governor’s veto and voted against overriding that veto. I am proud that I had a role in stopping it from becoming law.

Alaska does need election reform, but it must begin with honest regulations, clean voter rolls, clear procedures and public confidence in the Division of Elections. We should not use a massive election bill to preserve or legitimize a voting system Alaskans are actively trying to repeal.

I believe Sen. Mike Shower will be Alaska’s next lieutenant governor. He has the knowledge, skills and abilities to begin cleaning up our elections, starting with the regulations governing how they are administered. Alaska needs a lieutenant governor who understands the details, asks hard questions and recognizes that public confidence must be earned.

The campaign to protect ranked-choice voting is already underway. Pro-RCV signs are appearing around town, and well-funded operatives will again tell Alaskans that this complicated system gives voters “more choices.”

But more choices on a ballot do not necessarily produce greater accountability. Under Alaska’s system, voters may have more names to rank, but political parties have less ability to nominate candidates who represent their members.

Those of us who support repeal cannot assume our neighbors understand what is at stake. We must talk with our friends, families and coworkers. We must explain how the jungle primary and ranked-choice general election work together to insulate politicians from the voters who know them best.

I appreciate the enormous amount of work the Repeal Now committee has done to return this question to the ballot. Gathering signatures across a state as large and difficult as Alaska requires persistence, organization and countless volunteer hours. I support that effort.

Alaska’s Legislature is a mess, and ranked-choice voting helped create the conditions that allowed it to happen. Once you realize that only 11.6 percent of Alaska voters are Democrat registrants, but that Democrats control the Legislature, you can see how this system has performed for Alaska.

If we want elected officials who answer to the voters and stand behind the principles on which they campaigned, we must restore real party primaries and straightforward general elections.

This November, I will vote Yes on 2 to repeal ranked-choice voting, restore accountability, stop dark money and begin cleaning up the mess.

Jamie Allard is the House Representative for House District 23, Eagle River.

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