Democrat Wins Special Election for Alaska’s U.S. House Seat

Posted on by August 31, 2022

On August 31, the Alaska Division of Elections basically finished tallying the August 16 votes in the special election for U.S. House. Mary Peltola, the only Democrat on the ballot, won with 51.47%; Sarah Palin had 48.53%. See this story.

This election used ranked choice voting for the final round, but not the first round, which was in June.

The term only lasts until January 2023.

Comments

Democrat Wins Special Election for Alaska’s U.S. House Seat — 52 Comments

  2. The Republicans would’ve won the race if their top vote getter wasn’t an ex-Governor that effectively abandoned the state after 2008.

    Imagine this RCV format is going to get the Republicans to join the Democrats in strongarming all candidates out of the race except one. At which point all the backers of the initiative say “this is not what we intended to happen”. Hard for me to imagine Palin or Begich getting swayed to drop out for party loyalty however when it’s two wings fighting to control the state party. The silver lining for Republicans is this is only for the lame duck term and they can adjust their voting in November for the full term accordingly.

  3. No candidate received a majority.

    All exhausted ballots should be treated as potentially being for the last placed continuing candidate. If this prevents eliminating a candidate, have a runoff.

  4. I voted for qualified write-in candidate Dr. Robert Ornelas the former State Chairman of CA AIP and the current Nation Chairman of the AIP in round one of this house race. The next round my vote was for Sarah Palin. Yet the second round vote was not counted by the Election Division for the write-in vote as required by Alasks prop. 2. Therefore this election is in violation of Amendment XIV, Section 2 of the United States Constitution, because all votes were not counted.

  6. A sort of “huh” on Jim, as it sounds like Alaska followed its own RCV law to the letter and a WTF on Mark.

  8. Why does Stock keep posting Democrat BS? Another stolen election but what does he care as long as it helps the Dems.

  9. Condorcet = RCV done right — with AppV tie-breaker.
    —
    PR for legis elections.

    Candidate/incumbent replacement lists — NOOO more office special elections.

  12. I’ve seen media speculation that if Begich had been the second-round candidate, he would have beaten Peltola. That suggests that Begich was the Condorcet winner.

  15. @SG,

    The problem is the Alaska law. There were 188,000 votes cast. Peltola did not receive a majority.

    Can we assume the Begich voters that did not transfer were indifferent to who was elected? Were they confused? Maybe they wanted to see who the contenders were before making a choice.

  16. “All exhausted ballots should be treated as potentially being for the last placed continuing candidate”

    If a voter didn’t cast a #2 vote, why should we presume where that voter’s vote should be transferred?

  18. 21% of the Begich voters chose not to make a 2nd choice. It doesn’t follow logically that they were confused. They just didn’t have a 2nd choice.

  20. Have faith and keep praying. The election thieves managed to steal another one, but the forces of God will recamp and rearm, and we will defeat the forces of Satan, stop the steal, beat the cheat, and elect Palin to a full term and perhaps Speaker of the House if it’s not MTG. McCarthy is weak and craven and must go.

  21. 435 reps overall – 50 State gerrymanders

    each state is a gerrymander dist in itself.

    1/2 votes x 1/2 rigged g areas = 1/4 control

  22. I can see Sarah Palin as Vice President of the United States on January 20, 2025 from here. And President afterwards. With the help of God it will happen. Hallelujah!

    Unless the forces of Satan and evil move up the schedule by indicting or arresting our duly elected President Trump before then. Then we will go to war and remove them before then, and put President Trump back into his rightful office. Amen!

  23. If you hold a run-off election, and voters who don’t like the final choices decide not to show up, that’s their choice.

    Likewise, if you have ranked choice voting, and some voters don’t make a second choice, who can presume how they ought to have voted?

  25. States are not gerrymander, moron. States are the basis of the union. It can be dissolved if the Chinese keep stealing our elections. The unoccupied Heartland and Southland can go our own way. If at first you don’t secede try and try again. But with help from God we will drive the occupiers from our coasts and reclaim all of God’s United States, then defeat our satanic enemies in every corner of the flat earth. And yes, it absolutely is flat. The “globe” is a myth. Praise God!

  26. “This is why ranked choice is flawed and the work of commies.”

    President Trump said it. I believe it. That settles it!

  27. Olde Brit colonies in N America — arbitrary carving up of N. America

    >>> States in 1775 MA -1776 12 -1777 VT [later State 14]

    Internal arbitrary political subdivisions – counties, etc.
    —
    Nonstop gerrymanders since 1200s –

    olde English House of Commons

    >>> State / local gerrymanders
    —-
    PR
    APPV
    TOTSOP

  28. Unlikely Condorcet math will be done.

    4 factorial
    + 3 factorial
    + 2 factorial
    +1 factorial

    APPV tie-breaker NOT used.
    ——
    Super party HACK Biden will N-O-T be raving tonight about the evil rotted gerrymander math in the USA regime –
    H. Reps
    Senate
    EC – esp that put him into the Oval Office.

  29. “Likewise, if you have ranked choice voting, and some voters don’t make a second choice, who can presume how they ought to have voted?”

    Because it’s not a normal or fair way to vote. 1 man 1 vote.

  30. azz,

    States are SOVEREIGN NATIONS — the union between them is by design one of mutual agreement, and neither guns nor a corrupt Supreme Court ever proved otherwise.

    As for the very unfair ranked choiced voting, I agree with President Trump and Mr. Libertarian. It should be one man one vote, and that does not mean women, children, alien invaders or their offspring, anchor babies or their offspring, illiterates, heathens, negroes, Chinamen, Mohammetans, atheists, mud people, indigents who have no property or can’t afford a poll tax, nomads whose father’s father was not even a voter in the same County, and others like them who are either not real Americans or have a role within the family that does not suit them to be the head of family or voter for that family.

  31. Just ignore Thomas Jones. He’s a fucking retard who spews the same garbage over and over.

  32. Plurality voting = esp for math MORONS like gangster-in-chief Trump and his MORON fanatics.
    —-
    PR
    APPV
    TOTSOP

  37. I’m getting really tired of these assholes rigging and stealing elections. Cheating is the only way they can win and so they concoct bullshit like rank-choice voting and mail-in balloting in order to manipulate results for their favored outcome.

  38. In the fall election for this seat, a libertarian will be one of the 4 on the ballot, now that an also-ran gop candidate has dropped out. i don’t know if this a first.

  41. You fucking retard, you don’t even know what a fascist is. The guy you voted for, Dementia Joe is a fascist.

  42. Practically speaking, ranked choice voting is possible only with computer technology. Those Republicans who have replaced their faith in God with faith in unfettered technology may need to rethink things.

  43. If any of those Begich voters regret not casting a #2 vote, they will get another chance in November to vote for a full term Rep.

  44. The real issue that I do have with this election is that the parties have no control over which candidates use their label.

    IMO, if the Republican Party didn’t want Begich to use the Republican label, they should have had the power to veto that. Then Begich would have to run as an independent.

    But, IMO, not even that would have changed the outcome in this case. I think 90%+ of Begich voters knew full well who the party leadership preferred.

  47. Would prefer to see actual seperate run off elections.
    Forces people to actually focus on final candidates.

    Still also not sold on the fact that the people who make the “worst” choices (by that I mean candidates that resonate with the least number of voters) are so valued that they get to vote the most times.

    I don’t live in Alaska so I don’t have a candidate in this fight but that is my major objection to RCV having seen it in person while living in Maine.

  48. Only “#2” candidates get “#2 votes” which makes no sense to anyone except a moron. The whole RCV system is a bunch of #2. Like President Trump said it is a dishonest election cheat scam. We need to nip this rank botched abortion voting system in the bud before we all have to learn Mandarin or bow to Mecca 5 times a day or pick crops by hand on a collective farm until we collapse from malnutrition, exhaustion, and untreated disease. You rank botched abortion voting system supporters are the biggest morons of them all.

  49. @RW WZ

    Did not choose to make a second choice or have a right to not make a second choice are euphemisms for did not make a second choice.

    On the other side of the ballot paper voters were voting for the same office with many of the same candidates including Begich, Palin, and Peltola.

    Some voters were likely confused by the ballot. Others may have been confused by the purpose of the ranking.

    If someone ranks

    1. Smith
    2. Jones
    3. Smith

    Does that mean that Smith was the third choice, or were exercising their rights? Of course not.

    Why do states use the multi-column format for RCV? Because it is easier for machine?

    Have you ever in your life used a ranking system like that? NO.

    You either list them in order of preference (and draw arrows for insertions and cross outs when you change your mind, or you list all the choices and then number them.

    The latter is the format used in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Australia, and Scotland.

    The Alaska format is a de facto literacy test.

  50. RCV is stupid. No to RCV. More dims cheating with RCV like with mail ballots and other stupid trash.

  51. JR wrote –

    Why do states use the multi-column format for RCV? Because it is easier for machine?
    —
    Obviously easier to scan / count — ONE oval/box — per column / line.

    Using hand written numbers is defacto same as BAAADE letter/name write-in handwriting.

    See olde 2010 Senate write-in votes esp for Murkowski >> zillion MIS-spellings >>> INTENT guessing games.

    MER/MIR — COW — SKY/SKE ??? etc.
    —-
    PR – CANDIDATE rank order lists of all other candidates — for surplus/loser vote transfers

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