Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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I find no merit in a tweet sent by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., following the Alaska election, which asserts that “Ranked-choice voting is a scam to rig elections.”
In the Senate race, Republican Kelly Tshibaka held an early lead over fellow Republican Lisa Murkowski. However, after all the votes had been counted, Murkowski led, and that lead held into Round 2. At this time, the second-choice votes of the 11.2% of people who voted for Democrat Patricia Chesbro were allocated. As would be expected, most of these votes went to Murkowski, giving her a 53.69% to 46.31% victory over the MAGA candidate.
The race for Congress differed. Democrat Mary Peltola led Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich in the first tabulation. However, the total Republican vote led the Democratic by 0.31%. By Round 2, the totals were Peltola 49.2%, Palin 26.32% and Begich 24.48%, increasing the Republican lead to 1.2%. This lead disappeared when Begich’s second-choice vote allocation gave 27,053 votes to Peltola and 15,402 to Palin, and Peltola won, 54.92% to 45.06%. The Democrat won because 64% of Begich’s voters preferred the Democratic candidate to the Trump-backed candidate, Palin. This is not a scam.
Under the current two-party system of strong national central parties, being a centrist candidate is challenging. I look forward to ranked-choice voting in Nevada, as candidates are freer of their national party.
