On January 12, an initiative petition was submitted in Alaska to repeal the Top Four election system and restore the ability of political parties to have nominees in the general elections. It needs 26,705 signatures, and backers of the initiative submitted 41,895.
The top-four system was used in November 2022 in Alaska. One of the consequences was that the Libertarian candidates for Governor and U.S. Senator did not place in the top four, so the party had no members running in the general election for either office. The party did have a member on the general election ballot for U.S. House, but that was a fluke; he had come in fifth in the primary but Tara Sweeney, one of the candidates who had placed in the top four, withdrew, and the law permitted the fifth-place finisher to replace her.
If the petition is valid, voters will vote in November 2024 on the repeal.
Would the repeal effect ranked choice voting, or just top four?
It would repeal both.
If it is voted on at the 2024 election, presumably it would not apply until 2026.
Hopefully the repeal will succeed. Both parts are bad.