RANKED CHOICE VOTING: The facts of what happened in Alaska

In response to Mr. Rockford’s statements about the 2022 Alaska House District 31, the facts are as follows. A Democratic candidate got elected over the two Republicans who collectively received more votes in the first round (by only 100 out of 5,000). The Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) process did just what it was suppose to do: give people choices.

First off, had the election gone to a runoff, Maxine Dibert would probably still have been elected, but the ranked choice saved that extra cost and delay. Second, it enabled Kelly Nash to run for office, and get votes from people who preferred her without concern about wasting their vote, because their second choice vote could then go to one of the two leading candidates.

Here is the explanation. In the first round the lead candidate Maxine Dibert (Dem) got 49%; the next candidate Bart Lebon (Rep) got 29.5% and the final candidate, Kelly Nash (Rep) got 21.6%. So Dibert was the leading candidate but not a majority by a very slim amount.

So now the votes for the candidate receiving the lowest votes are put aside. The second choice votes for the people that originally voted for that candidate are then added to the original votes for the other candidates. Not surprisingly, 582 votes (84%) went to the other Republican, but 111 votes went to the Democratic candidate. Meaning Kelly Nash drew some votes from both parties (heaven forbid). But those 111 second-choice votes were enough to push Dibert over the 50% threshold and therefore the winner.

RCV let’s citizens vote for the people they want without rigid party line restrictions.

JAMES FILLMORE

Coeur d’Alene