As someone who has religiously voted in every election for the past 50-plus years I’ve been eligible to vote in Alaska, I’m totally agnostic about politics — particularly the so-called parties, and I mentally block all party association. My mantra is, “Partisan politics has polluted and poisoned the political process to the point of paralysis!” Not ironically, if you asked me which party any candidate in office at this moment belonged to, I could not tell you — I’m that opposed to the party process; I disdain them all equally. Ask me which candidate stands for the principles and perspective I believe in for an issue and I can probably name them. I’m a firm believer in voting for, supporting and doing “the right thing,” not the party thing.
I just read of the challenge by politicians to file a protest against ranked-choice voting. I believe, though, that their very justification states the most obvious reason for implementing it. According to the article, “In court documents, they say people ’'exercise their right of free political association by forming political parties for the purpose of electing candidates’' and advancing issues and principles. They call the new voter-approved system a ’'political experiment’' and say it was designed in a way to harm political parties.”I maintain that it is not “the party (platform)” that I am voting for or is being elected. It is the individual for whom I want to vote. I’m hoping and praying that the individual has a wider view and more negotiable attitude about things than “the party” pulling their strings.
Because of the primary system in place through 2020, driven by Republican action some years ago, we did not actually get to vote for any individual — we were forced to take a ballot either with only Republicans or only other parties. And even then, most are forced to be a “titular head,” a mindless minion who complies with party mandates, or is castigated if they show any spirit that their party doesn’t support.
I think the argument posed perfectly lays out the contradiction of their justification about “exercis(ing) their right of free political association by forming political parties for the purpose of electing candidates.” We are specifically and purposely restricted from electing the candidates of our choice and can only vote for the candidates “the party’s offer to us.” When my opportunity to vote is restricted to either the Republican ballot OR the “all the rest” ballot, I am being disfranchised from exercising my right to vote for any and all of the candidates I support, regardless of party.
I believe ranked-choice voting is the best and most fair method for giving everyone their first and best choice to vote for their candidate of choice — and for the most popular candidate of all to be elected by the majority of all voters. Let’s get moving and do what’s right!
— Dan Tucker
Wasilla
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