What does the ballot initiative say?
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What do campaign finance rules do?
Alaska’s campaign finance rules help make it clear who’s paying for political ads and campaigns, so voters know who’s actually behind the message. Ballot Measure 2 aims to end several of these rules.
Voting Yes on Ballot Measure 2 raises the cap on “dark money,” which are financial contributions where the source doesn’t have to be disclosed. It would allow entities to accept more than $2,000 without publicly identifying the original source of those funds.
Yes on Ballot Measure 2 would also eliminate certain requirements disclosing a contribution’s original source when funds are passed through an intermediary or third party.
Finally, voting Yes on Ballot Measure 2 would repeal the requirement that certain political ad “paid for” disclaimers remain visible for the entire ad and eliminate the additional disclaimer required for certain ads funded primarily by out-of-state contributors.
Voting No on Ballot Measure 2 keeps our current campaign finance rules in place and keeps greater transparency around campaign funding sources.
How do open or closed primaries impact an election?
Open and closed primaries decide who gets to vote in a party’s primary election.
In a closed primary, only voters registered with a party can vote in that party’s primary. (So a Republican primary is decided only by registered Republicans, and a Democratic primary only by registered Democrats, etc.) This tends to favor candidates who appeal most to the party’s base, since only the most committed party voters show up to vote in a primary election.
In an open primary, any registered voter can vote in the primary, regardless of their own party registration. All voters are able to choose from a list of all candidates running for office. This often pushes results toward more moderate candidates, since the pool of voters is more mixed.
In Alaska, all candidates from every party run on one ballot. The top 4 vote-getters move on to the general election, which means there can be more than one candidate from a single party on the general election ballot.
Supporters of open primaries say they give more voters a voice, reduce extreme outcomes, and avoid legislative gridlock. Supporters of closed primaries say parties should get to choose their own nominees.
A Yes vote on Ballot Measure 2 changes Alaska’s primary system and will reinstate closed primaries. A No vote on Ballot Measure 2 would keep the current open primary system.
How does ranked-choice voting work?
In Alaska’s general election, voters have the option to rank four candidates in order of preference, from favorite to least favorite. They can rank as many or as few as they want (ranking from 1–4, only ranking 1, or anything in between).
How votes are counted:
- If one candidate gets more than half of the first-choice votes, that candidate wins outright.
- If no one clears 50%, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes gets eliminated.
- The eliminated candidate’s votes go to whichever candidate each of those voters ranked second.
- This process repeats, round after round, eliminating the last-place candidate each time, until one candidate has the majority of the votes and wins.
Example: Picking Alaska’s Favorite Berry
You rank: 1st = Raspberry, 2nd = Blueberry, 3rd = Salmonberry, 4th = Cranberry.
If over half (50%) vote for any one berry as #1, that berry wins. If no berry gets more than half, and Raspberry gets the fewest votes, your Raspberry vote goes to Blueberry, because Raspberry is out.
Votes are counted again. If still no berry has more than 50% of the votes and Blueberry now has the fewest votes, your vote moves to Salmonberry. The process continues until one berry gets more than 50% of the votes and wins.
This ranking only applies to the general election. Before that, Alaska uses a “Pick one primary,” where every candidate from every party runs on one ballot, voters pick one favorite, and the four with the most votes move on to the ranked-choice general election.
A Yes vote on Ballot Measure 2 eliminates Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, allowing voters to only vote for their top candidate. A No vote on Ballot Measure 2 would keep the current ranked-choice voting system in place.