Alaska apparently elects its first Alaska Native to Congress; Sarah Palin loses in the state's first ranked-choice election - Entrepreneur Generations

Mary Peltola (ADN photo)

More than 60 years after it became a state, Alaska will be represented in Congress by an Alaska Native, if an election review board endorses results tabulated Wednesday in the state's first ranked-choice election.

In a special election to fill the vacancy created by the death of Republican Don Young, Democrat Mary Peltola edged out Republican Sarah Palin "after ballots were tallied and votes for third-place GOP candidate Nick Begich III were redistributed to his supporters’ second choices," reports Iris Samuels of the Anchorage Daily News.

Peltola, a Yup’ik from Bethel, would also be the first woman to hold Alaska’s only House seat. Palin, a former governor who was her party's 2008 vice presidential nominee and was endorsed by Donald Trump, may have been done in by the ranked-choice system, which tends to favor more moderate candidates. She and Begich got nearly 60 percent of first-place votes, but only half of Begich's voters made her their second choice, giving Peltola 51.5% of the final vote. Palin told supporters, “The task in front of me is to explain to Alaskans why ranked-choice voting is not in the public’s best interest.”

"The special election, held Aug. 16 with mail-in ballots counted over the past two weeks and the ranked choice standings announced Wednesday, determines who will serve out the remainder of Young’s term, which ends in January," Samuels notes. "Another election in November will determine who holds the seat for the full two-year term that begins in January. Peltola, Palin and Begich said after results were announced Wednesday that they intend to remain in the November race."

Daniela Altimari of Route Fifty reports, "According to the nonpartisan group RepresentUs, two states, one county and 52 cities, including San Francisco and New York, are expected to use ranked choice voting for at least some of their upcoming elections. Voters in Maine cast ranked-choice ballots in the 2020 presidential election and similar systems are in place in several communities in Minnesota. Alaska voters narrowly approved ranked-choice voting in 2020."

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/m6WzyHI Alaska apparently elects its first Alaska Native to Congress; Sarah Palin loses in the state's first ranked-choice election - Entrepreneur Generations

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