Alaskans will decide in November whether to overhaul the state’s elections system with a ballot measure that would repeal ranked-choice voting, reinstate closed primaries and repeal campaign finance disclosure rules established in 2020.
Officials with the Alaska Division of Elections held the first of two public hearings to gather input on the ballot measures on July 27, as required by law. Campaign supporters, opponents and Alaskans called in from around the state to the Legislative Information Office to share their views at an event chaired by Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom.
A similar ballot measure to repeal ranked-choice voting was voted down in 2024 by 737 votes out of 320,985 cast. Supporters quickly restarted the campaign in 2025 and collected over 34,000 signatures, required to place the issue before Alaska voters again in 2026.
The measure’s primary sponsors include Republican gubernatorial candidate Bernadette Wilson.
If approved, Ballot Measure 2 would repeal changes established by a 2020 ballot measure. It would repeal the nonpartisan, open-primary system and ranked-choice general election.
Currently, Alaska voters of any party affiliation can vote for any candidate in the primary election. If approved, the measure would revert the state’s elections to the closed primary system, where only one candidate from each party advances to the general election, and parties choose who may participate in that party’s vote.
The measure would also repeal some campaign finance disclosure rules. It would repeal limits enacted by the ballot measure passed in 2020, which requires that individuals and entities who contribute more than $2,000 to candidates or campaigns must disclose the true source, as defined by law.
According to the ballot summary from the Division of Elections, the measure would remove spending limits and disclosure rules, including for digital ads, out-of-state donations, undisclosed donations and true-source donations.
Supporters of the ballot measure, called the “Repeal Now” campaign, argue that ranked-choice voting is confusing and burdensome to voters, and advocated for returning to the pre-2020 system.
Opponents of Ballot Measure 2 argue the ranked-choice voting system gives voters more choices at the ballot box, and deters extreme partisans while encouraging candidates to appeal to a wider variety of voters. They argued against repealing campaign disclosure rules, which they say would welcome more Outside, undisclosed “dark money” into Alaska elections.
Scott Kendall testified July 27 on behalf of the No on 2 campaign, registered as a group called Protect Alaska’s Elections. He argued that the system is not too complicated for voters, and that repealing campaign disclosure rules would have a larger negative effect on Alaska than repealing open primaries and ranked-choice voting.
Alaskans who called in or testified in person at the hearing were split, arguing vehemently in support and against the ballot measure.
Several testifiers in support of the measure said ranked-choice voting is too complicated.
Testifiers opposing the measure objected to repealing campaign finance disclosures.
Bryan Schroder, a 24-year veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard and former U.S. Attorney in Alaska, urged keeping the current disclosure requirements and ranked-choice system to encourage bipartisanship.
“Now, when our candidates campaign, they have to appeal to a majority of voters, not just the hardcore wing of any political party,” he said. “We have a Legislature where more members are willing to work together to do what is best for Alaskans, actively choosing against the do-nothing tribal politics that frustrates so many of us, and as a colleague of mine put it, ‘the workhorses are coming to the front, not the show horses.’”
Supporters and opponents of the ballot measure criticized each other at the hearing for taking Outside funding from big donors.
Both campaigns have raised large sums of money since 2025, with contributions from out-of-state political action committees, according to public filings with the Alaska Public Offices Commission and Federal Elections Commission.
The “Repeal Now” campaign supporting the measure has raised $1.1 million to date.
The majority of funds, $846,000, have been donated by the Aurora Action Network, based in Wisconsin whose major donors include finance billionaire Jeff Yass of Pennsylvania.
Other Alaska-affiliated contributors to the Aurora Action Network include Jeff Hildebrand, CEO of Hilcorp, a major oil and gas producer in Alaska; John Binkley, trustee of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp.; Treg Taylor, Republican gubernatorial candidate and former attorney general, and Deena Bishop, state education commissioner, according to federal filings.
The opposing No on 2 campaign has raised $5.75 million to date.
The campaign’s largest donor is Unite America PAC — contributing $4 million to date — a Colorado-based venture fund founded by a professor and advocate Charles Whelan, focused on funding elections reforms, in particular creating open, all-candidate primaries. Its biggest donors include Jason Carroll, a New York financier; Kent Thiry, a Colorado philanthropist who co-chairs Unite America; and David Randolph Peeler, an executive with the private equity firm Berkshire Partners.
The campaign has also received $1.5 million from Voters from the American Center, a Washington D.C. political nonprofit that supports lobbying “to advance democratic participation and strengthen democracy’s core systems,” according to a philanthropic trade outlet, philanthropy.org.
The Alaska Beacon is an independent, donor-funded news organization. Alaskabeacon.com.
