In the two weeks since Alaska’s special election for their only seat in the House of Representatives, many commentators have quite simply gotten the story wrong.
Many articles have praised the Democratic candidate, Mary Peltola, for miraculously flipping the seat that was held for 49 years by Republican Don Young. Others predict that the Alaskan race spells good fortune for Democrats across the country in the midterm elections. Even conservative voices who anticipate a massive red wave in November contend that the results are merely a repudiation of Alaska’s former governor, Sarah Palin (R).
Most of these perspectives, however, have either misunderstood or simply ignored the real culprit of the upset in Alaska: ranked-choice voting (RCV).
Alaska’s Exhausting Special Election — Nearly 15,000 Ballots Thrown Out
In the two weeks since Alaska’s special election for their only seat in the House of Representatives, many commentators have quite simply gotten the story wrong.
Many articles have praised the Democratic candidate, Mary Peltola, for miraculously flipping the seat that was held for 49 years by Republican Don Young. Others predict that the Alaskan race spells good fortune for Democrats across the country in the midterm elections. Even conservative voices who anticipate a massive red wave in November contend that the results are merely a repudiation of Alaska’s former governor, Sarah Palin (R).
Most of these perspectives, however, have either misunderstood or simply ignored the real culprit of the upset in Alaska: ranked-choice voting (RCV).