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https://www.yahoo.com/news/alaska-i...etely-new-in-the-fall-election-193615285.html
Alaska will try something completely new in the fall election
Maine has used ranked-choice voting statewide for the last few years, and a growing number of cities and localities are also using the reform. New York City’s mayoral contest was the best-known example of this last year.
But no state has tried what Alaska will do this fall. There will be no party primary in the new system. All candidates of all parties will run against one another in the Aug. 16 primary contest. The primary will not be a ranked-choice election. The top four vote getters will proceed to the Nov. 8 general election, a new system known as “final four” voting.
Only then, in the fall election, will ranked-choice voting — also known as instant-runoff voting — be implemented. Under ranked choice, voters are asked to list candidates in order of preference. Candidates are then gradually eliminated, and votes are reallocated to the next person on the list. This continues until one candidate secures over 50 percent of the vote.
This new system passed, narrowly, by voter referendum in 2020. It is intended to make the final choice of the voters more representative of the state. The hope is that it will reduce the grip that the most intense partisans on each side of the political spectrum exercise on U.S. elections through closed party primaries, followed by plurality winners in general elections.
Alaska will try something completely new in the fall election
Maine has used ranked-choice voting statewide for the last few years, and a growing number of cities and localities are also using the reform. New York City’s mayoral contest was the best-known example of this last year.
But no state has tried what Alaska will do this fall. There will be no party primary in the new system. All candidates of all parties will run against one another in the Aug. 16 primary contest. The primary will not be a ranked-choice election. The top four vote getters will proceed to the Nov. 8 general election, a new system known as “final four” voting.
Only then, in the fall election, will ranked-choice voting — also known as instant-runoff voting — be implemented. Under ranked choice, voters are asked to list candidates in order of preference. Candidates are then gradually eliminated, and votes are reallocated to the next person on the list. This continues until one candidate secures over 50 percent of the vote.
This new system passed, narrowly, by voter referendum in 2020. It is intended to make the final choice of the voters more representative of the state. The hope is that it will reduce the grip that the most intense partisans on each side of the political spectrum exercise on U.S. elections through closed party primaries, followed by plurality winners in general elections.
