By SUZANNE DOWNING
April 15, 2026 – There are bad bills, and then there are flat-out dangerous ones. Senate Bill 64 falls squarely in the second category.
While lawmakers and the public have been focused on the size of the Permanent Fund dividend and the ongoing budget mess, something far more consequential has moved through the Legislature and now sits on the governor’s desk. SB 64 is a structural rewrite of how Alaska runs elections, and it tilts the playing field to left field.
Let’s call it what it really is: the Ranked-Choice Voting Protection Act — RCVPA.
This bill does not exist in a vacuum. It is, as writer Pam Melin put it, the love child of the Hallway Hustlers of Juneau.
SB 64 comes six years after Alaska voters were sold the bill of goods known as ranked-choice voting — a dastardly election overhaul that fundamentally changed how we vote and how winners are decided. Now, instead of letting that system stand or fall on its own merits during this fall’s repeal ballot question, SB 64 steps in to try to add rebar reinforcements to protect RCV and cement it in place … so it works the way its Democrat supporters intended.
Look at what’s inside SB 64:
- Extended ballot curing. More time to fix ballots after the fact.
- Expanded absentee timelines. More ballots arriving later into the process.
- New “rural liaison” positions embedded into the system to “help.”
- Pre-paid postage for absentee voters.
- Tribal IDs accepted as voter ID, even though tribal ID does not establish state residency.
They form a pattern: Stretch the timeline for rural Alaska, increase intervention points for rural Alaska, and institutionalize new layers of influence for rural Alaska in the election process. It’s engineering under the banner of “access” and “fairness,” while ignoring the most basic requirement of any election system: trust.
Alaskans are already skeptical of a system that has gotten complicated, opaque, and increasingly out of their control with ranked-choice voting.
What makes this moment more troubling is who helped push it across the finish line.
Rep. Sarah Vance, once a conservative Republican, got drawn in by Sen. Bill Wielechowski, a clever Democrat, to cosponsor this bill. Melin was too kind calling this bill a love child of the hallway hustlers. SB 64 is the equivalent of a legislative demon child of Vance and Wielechowski.
Now, Vance has threatened the governor on social media, essentially leveraging him to not veto her love child bill, or she might not vote for his LNG legislation.
Pam Melin: We don’t need a ‘bigger’ election system. We need an honest one and SB 64 isn’t honest.
Vance of Homer and Sen. Rob Yundt, of Wasilla, didn’t just drift into supporting this bill. They were flattered along, persuaded by one of the Legislature’s most seasoned and manipulative operators. Bill Wielechowski has a reputation for knowing exactly how to identify the weak links in the Republican caucus, how to make the women feel pretty and men feel smart. And he works his magic like a charm.
A handful of Republicans joined all Democrats to pass this bill. That should concern every Republican voter in this state, because this was a foundational shift in how elections are administered. The tribal ID section alone should have killed this bill.
The litmus test for Republicans will be the override vote on the governor’s expected veto. You are either willing to defend a straightforward election system or you are willing to go along with Bill Wielechowski’s slow-motion rewrite that benefits those who brought you ranked-choice voting. This is why Sen. Lisa Murkowski praised Rep. Vance and Sen. Wielechowski during her speech to the Alaska Legislature.
Remember, the Democratic Party is so happy with this bill that it is using it to raise money for campaigning:
Alaska Democrats celebrate controversial election bill, SB 64, and are using it to raise money
And yes, there are other forces besides fragile egos at play in Juneau. Anyone who has spent time in those hallways has run into the lobbyists, political operators, and insiders who understand exactly how to shape outcomes over time. They don’t need dramatic changes. They prefer incremental ones that have just enough bipartisan cover to avoid public backlash. SB 64 fits that model perfectly.
The decision has moved to the governor. If he vetoes it, the Legislature will attempt an override. Every Republican who sides with an override will be making a clear statement to voters about where they stand. And everyone of those Republicans should be voted out of office, even if it means scorched earth and starting over, rebuilding the conservative movement from scratch.
This bill matters far more than the size of this year’s Permanent Fund dividend or the size of the operating budget this year. Election systems, once altered, shape outcomes for years to come.
Suzanne Downing is the founder and editor of The Alaska Story and is a longtime Alaskan.
13 thoughts on “SB 64: The Ranked-Choice Voting Protection Act Alaska didn’t ask for deserves a veto”
“Trust in the Lord and do good. trust In the Lord and do good. Trust in the Lord and do good, Trust in the Lord and do good” don’t get mad. Don’t get mad. Don’t mad.
God will hold accountable these bad leaders in their final end.
They are horrendously evil who dont even fear their own deaths when its their time to pass way
‘It seems it was ‘Rigged. Choice Voting’ that got us into this mess, aided by the Covid era inspired, and supposed to be temporary, ‘cheat by mail’. Now here we are, faster than one could imagine, with a predominantly corrupt legislature looking to protect their power and control at all fronts. How Matsu voters did not see through Yundt’s self serving neo-con actions on the assembly, and hence voted him (or just blindly voted for an ‘R’) into the state legislature is beyond me. I only hope they are paying attention now,
Didn’t one state just eliminate RCV?
Several have banned it but I am not sure if any have riddled themselves of it after already in place. Only a few even have it?
No. A state court in Maine issued an opinion that a proposed expansion of RCV in Maine was likely unconstitutional. As far as I know, RCV still exists in Maine. Cheers –
Alex is correct, it was retained in Maine but the court shot down the expansion of it to something like our top 4. Good for them!
Ballot curing? Nope!
If you’re too stupid to know how to vote, that’s on you. You have a right to botr, but not a right to be coddled and have your hand held.
Expanded absentee timelines? Nope!
Get the ballot on time and returned by Election Day.
Tribal IDs? Nope!
State issued photo ID. Just like what’s required for everything else in life.
It’s sad Vance and Yundt fell for this.
When all Ds are for something, it’s a clue it’s bad for the people.
who owns your representative?
its not you and never has been
they are owned by the big money donors
fallow the money.
Does this mean natives with Tribal ID’s will have to learn how to spell Murcowsky if it fails?
I fail to see the connection between RCV and SB64 and other than the outright assertion I read nothing in this commentary that shows a connection between the two.
That being said, SB64 is just more soft bigotry of low expectations. Nothing more than blatant, low intellect paternalistic infantilization in legislative form: the underlying assumption is that Native/rural Alaskans are less capable of navigating standard election procedures than the (superior) whites in Anchorage and Homer. The days when you needed to protect the noble savage are long gone, Sarah.
I think the “connection between RCV and SB64”, is “Extended ballot curing. More time to fix ballots after the fact” and the other 4 items in the list in the above article. The idea is that those 5 changes to the election system may possibly allow for irregularities to occur, in the final election results, when we try to vote next November, to get rid of Ranked Choice Voting.
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In our last attempt to get rid of Ranked Choice Voting (Ballot Measure #2 in Nov. 2024) the “Yes” votes (“Yes”, get rid of RCV) were ahead by a small margin on election night. But as more votes were counted in the following days, the “No” votes got slightly ahead and won the election. Powerful out-of-state groups had flooded Alaska with $12 million for misleading ads to hypnotize Alaskans into voting “No”, so as to keep RVC and the Jungle Primary.
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Suzanne, I would really like to talk with you about SB 64. I Have read it several times and don’t see all the problems you do. It is not perfect by a long shot, but it seems like a good step forward to me. Can you message me or give me a call 907-299-8142. Charlie
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of SB64 is the ballot curing. A long term goal of leftist & democrats is all mail out voting. They see it as an advantage to their side of the aisle, or they wouldn’t do it. That’s how both political sides generally operate. Take, for example, Anchorage. The far left wing Anchorage assembly will protect its off cycle, April election, and almost all mail out voting scheme at all costs. Why? Because they understand if it was moved to the general election in November they will lose their biggest advantage and their fascist grip on power. More normal people, republicans and conservatives come out to vote in the big elections. Our voter turnout is poor in November elections, it’s pathetic in special and off cycle elections. In the April elections they know they will get their public sector unions (and regular union cronies like the NEA) to “educate” and “motivate” their people to vote. They produce pamphlets, hold meetings, and instruct their people how, where & when to vote. To insure the leftist who butter their bread continue to maintain power. It’s those leftist who provide them funding via tax dollars in the ever increasing budget. Want to start taking Anchorage and Alaska back from the leftist? Line up all local elections in the state with the November general election. It would simplify things, save money, and increase voter turnout. All good and reasonable goals.
Understand leftist like Wielechowski play the long game and know it is difficult to get things done in big steps, so they take baby steps that don’t seem unreasonable until you see the bigger picture. Ballot curing is just one step in their bigger plan and that is to enact statewide all mail out voting. Once they achieve that the statistics say it will turn the state blue. SB64 may seem reasonable, maybe has some good stuff and some things conservatives want, but I would bet they would sell their soul to get curing, that alone and their desperation to get it ought to tell us everything we need to know.