Election day went smoothly in Wrangell on Aug. 16 despite the transition to ranked-choice ballots. Voters interviewed left the polling place with a largely positive impression of the new system.
This was the first election in Alaska with the new voting system, which allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference. The system, adopted by voters in a 2020 ballot initiative, is intended to reduce political polarization and negative campaigning, though critics argue that it could complicate the voting process unnecessarily. Alaska is one of two states using a ranked-choice ballot for its primary elections — Maine has also made the switch.
The new voting system applied only to the special election to fill the unexpired term of the late Don Young, who served in the U.S. House for 49 years until his death in March. The other side of the Aug. 16 ballot was the primary election to choose which candidates will advance to the general election in November—when ranked choice will be used again to determine the winner.
Exiting the Nolan Center, Patty Gilbert reported minimal confusion in the voting booth after filling out a ranked-choice ballot. She arrived at the polling place with her voting strategy already planned and followed through with her intended choices. For her, the overall experience was “very simple.”
Jacquie Dozer encountered a minor holdup after a voter in front of her inserted their ballot wrong and stalled the line, but despite this slight disruption she retained an optimistic outlook on the ranked-choice system.
“There is always going to be someone not reading the directions,” said Valerie Massie, another voter. Though Massie expressed confusion about the reasoning behind the change, she found filling out the new ballot to be relatively straightforward. “It’s not rocket science.”
Massie was also impressed with the way information about the new system had been distributed in Wrangell. She received “lots of mail” with tips on how to fill out her ballot properly, how to avoid common voting mistakes, and how to maximize her voice in the political process.
Massie has the Alaska Division of Elections to thank for the informative mailers that have filled her post office box in recent months. According to Tiffany Montemayor, public relations manager at the division, educating the public on how ranked choice works was paramount to the new system’s implementation. The division’s mailers, radio ads, digital ads, print and streaming ads “went over ranked-choice instructions with a big focus on how to mark your ballot,” she said.
Opponents of ranked-choice voting often name voter confusion as one of the primary reasons not to adopt the system. An oft-cited 2016 study by Jason McDaniel of San Francisco State University suggests that ranked-choice ballots may decrease turnout at the polls if some voters are intimidated by the unfamiliar format.
Turnout in Wrangell in last week’s two-part election was much heavier than in past primary votes, but lower than in general elections. Election-day turnout Aug. 16 was 515, versus fewer than 300 in each of the past two primaries but lower than the 730 who voted in the past two general elections.
Those numbers include only people who voted in person on election day. Absentee and early votes were tallied separately.
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