If this matter appears on the ballot again, I plan to vote against it, for the following reason.
Voting is not similar to choosing from a restaurant menu, where there are almost always acceptable alternatives if the special is sold out. For many voters, there’s only one acceptable candidate out of an entire field. Once a given voter chooses their only acceptable person, there’s no mechanism for also making that same candidate your No. 2, 3, 4, etc, choice. Your vote is gone, unlike that of those who play along with the ballot and rank their votes. When there were run-offs, that same disenfranchised voter would at least have the opportunity to enter their preferred choice as a write-in, even if they didn’t make the cut initially. I seriously doubt that the ranked choice mechanism will result in many run-offs.
Elections, as I’ve always understood them, aren’t meant to level the playing field, which is my present perception of what the ranked choice system will often result in.
— Rick Garner
Anchorage
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