In 2020, Alaskans passed a first-in-the-nation voting system which helped energize similar reform efforts around the country. In 2024, Alaska voters are now presented with a ballot measure to repeal this same Final or “Top Four” system that includes a unified open primary of all candidates plus a ranked choice general election. Meanwhile, voters in Nevada, Idaho, Colorado and other states consider measures to pass major elements of  the “Alaska model.”

This Purple Principle episode features discussion with election law expert and reform advocate Scott Kendall, a major catalyst behind “Top Four” in the frontier state. He explains the impetus behind the initial reform in terms of the perverse motivations elections have traditionally provided to candidates and elected representatives.

“We have set up a system that gives all the wrong incentives and then we're surprised when people act on those incentives,” says Kendall, a former chief of staff to independent Governor Bill Walker. “It's as though a teacher graded their students' success on how much they misbehaved in class. And we wanted to change that.”

By contrast, Republican state Senator Robert Myers stands in favor of the repeal effort, noting the longstanding Alaska tradition of forming bipartisan coalitions in the state legislature. “I think  this a problem in search of a solution,” Myers told us at the 2024 Alaska State Fair. “The way it was passed… a lot of people voting for campaign finance changes didn't realize they were voting to put in a jungle primary and ranked choice voting general election.”

New System, Long Tradition?

Independent Alaska House Representatives Calvin Schrage and Rebecca Himschoot see the Top Four or Ranked Choice Voting system differently. They think it will preserve and strengthen Alaska’s less partisan, more pragmatic political tradition.

“Going door to door on my campaign, I'm also talking to voters a lot about the initiative,” says Schrage, the House Minority Leader representing parts of Anchorage. “I think returning to the old system further empowers extreme partisan individuals to choose candidates for us.”

Prior to election, Rep. Himschoot was a career educator with a window on family and community challenges in her historically low-income southeast Alaska district. She doubts she would have entered politics without the Top Four  system. “It's a planetary test,” says Himschoot. “If we can keep open primaries and ranked choice voting, we have a chance at our state getting to a better place.”

Tune in for Part Two of this exploration of the frontiers of election reform. How did Alaska become the North Star for other reform efforts around the country? What seminal events laid the groundwork for Top Four  passage in 2020 and a first full set of elections in 2022? And what are the issues surrounding potential repeal of Top Four or Ranked Choice Voting just four years after initial passage? 

The Purple Principles is a Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.