Alaska has two same-named candidates in the U.S. Senate race. The allegation that the second Dan Sullivan arrived on the ballot after a well-funded recruitment operation has drawn a lot of attention to Alaska’s unique election system, the subject of a repeal measure that’s also on the ballot this year.
So we asked: Are Alaska’s nonpartisan primary and ranked choice voting contributing to ballot shenanigans? Does the format invite candidates to join Alaska’s races just to act as spoilers? We spoke to four people involved in the repeal measure, from the yes and no camps.
For repeal, Craig Richards: The old system had a check on spoiler candidates
Former Alaska Attorney General Craig Richards said the election method Alaska adopted in 2020 is prone to manipulation.
“In the traditional American system of voting, the check and balance to a lot of the games we're seeing was that each party moves forward one candidate from the primary, and then you have a general composed of two or maybe three different candidates, all from different parties,” said Richards, a legal adviser for the repeal campaign.
Richards said the parties discouraged “silly” people by drafting and supporting quality candidates. Alaska’s recognized political parties used to have one reserved spot each on the general election ballot and, with a few notable exceptions, weren’t inclined to give them to spoilers.
Now, candidates can select a party label but it’s not an indication that they have party support and the parties can’t do anything about it.
For current system, John-Henry Heckendorn: Spoilers are a national problem, but ranking blunts their impact
John-Henry Heckendorn is a consultant for No on 2, the campaign against repeal. He said this year, potential spoilers are plaguing races in states that have traditional election systems, too.
“It definitely feels like this is a trend that Alaska is being subjected to, rather than something that's unique to Alaska,” said Heckendorn, founder of the Ship Creek Group, a firm that’s managed campaigns for Democrats and independents.
Axios reported this week that super PACs, many with ties to the two major parties, have spent millions to promote more than 40 potential spoilers in congressional races around the country. These are typically third-party candidates running as Greens, Libertarians and independents.
“These kinds of spoiler candidates are happening everywhere, and the parties are showing that they're willing to spend the money to put them on the ballot,” Heckendorn said. Alaska, as he sees it, isn’t especially prone to them, but he said it’s the only state with a good remedy: Ranked choice voting. A voter might choose a minor candidate but if that candidate comes in last, the ballot would go to whomever the voter ranked as a second.
“What is unique is that our system has a provision that blunts the impact of spoiler candidates, and you know I think that's the thing that's getting underlooked by the national media on this one,” Heckendorn said.
For repeal, Greg Powers: Super PACs can exploit unranked ballots
Greg Powers is the campaign manager for Yes on 2, also called Repeal Now. He said Alaska’s system attracts ballot-stacking because some percentage of voters are going to choose a spoiler, maybe by accident, and then not rank anyone else in the race. Super PACs on the right and left know this and spend big to promote minor candidates in hopes of splitting the vote on the other side, he said.
“They're just playing on the statistics, hoping to get a little bit of an edge in case the election is close,” he said. “Then their shenanigans will cause them to win. In other electoral systems, you don't have the ability to do that, and so of course, when you have the ability to do that, then campaigns are going to exploit it.”
For current system, Scott Kendall: Recruiting challengers to split the vote predates ranked choice
Attorney Scott Kendall drafted the 2020 ballot measure that brought Alaska’s open primary and ranked choice voting system. He said Alaska elections had plenty of spoilers before 2020, too.
“We've had petition candidates, Libertarian candidates, Alaska Independence Party candidates, and they were — everyone knows — strategically recruited in," he said. "If you were a Republican, you try to recruit in a person to run as a nominal Green candidate. If you're a Democrat, you try to recruit in an Alaska Independence Party or a Libertarian candidate. It's a tale as old as time."
One example Kendall cites is the 2008 election that unseated Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. Stevens lost that election by fewer than 4,000 votes to Democrat Mark Begich. But he was also fending off a challenger from the right: Bob Bird, running as an Alaska Independence Party candidate. Bird took about 13,000 votes. As Kendall sees it, if Bird voters had the opportunity to rank, probably a portion of them would’ve ranked Stevens and the senator would’ve kept his seat.
