Alaska Election Officials Recalculate Signatures for Ranked Vote Repeal Measure
In Juneau, Alaska, a state court judge named Christina Rankin made a decision on Friday regarding the initiative to repeal Alaska’s ranked choice voting system. She disqualified a number of booklets that were used to collect signatures for the initiative and gave elections officials a deadline to determine if the measure still had enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot.
This decision came as a result of a lawsuit brought by three voters who wanted to disqualify the repeal measure from the ballot. Judge Rankin had previously ruled that the Division of Elections had acted within its authority when allowing sponsors of the measure to fix errors in the petition booklets. However, her recent ruling focused on challenges to the sponsors’ signature-collecting methods, which were brought up in a trial.
The plaintiffs alleged that the petition booklets used to gather signatures were left unattended at businesses and shared among multiple circulators. An expert witness for the plaintiffs claimed that there was suspicious activity throughout the repeal campaign. As a result, Judge Rankin disqualified several booklets containing nearly 3,000 signatures.
Backers of the repeal initiative needed to gather a total of 26,705 signatures from voters in at least three-fourths of the state House districts. The Division of Elections now has until Wednesday to remove the disqualified signatures and booklets and determine if the measure still meets the signature requirements for the ballot.
Kevin Clarkson, a former state attorney general representing the repeal initiative sponsors, expressed that the ruling seemed mostly favorable to his clients. However, he mentioned that further analysis is needed to ensure the measure still has enough valid signatures.
Scott Kendall, who was involved in a successful 2020 ballot initiative that introduced ranked voting, highlighted the serious issues in the signature drive. He mentioned that all parties involved will need to consider their appeal options once the Division of Elections recalculates the final signature count.
Patty Sullivan, a spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Law, stated that the Division of Elections appreciates the court’s prompt decision and will work on recalculating the final signature count based on the ruling.
Overall, the process of determining the validity of signatures for the ranked vote repeal measure continues in Alaska, with all parties involved closely monitoring the situation and considering their next steps.
