Sarah Palin Condemns Ranked Choice Voting System Following Election

Former 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who ran for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat, condemned the special election results Thursday, which used ranked-choice voting to declare her Democrat opponent Mary Peltola the victor.

“Ranked-choice voting was sold as the way to make elections better reflect the will of the people,” Palin said in a statement. “As Alaska — and America — now sees, the exact opposite is true.”

Palin’s loss became clear Wednesday night, two weeks after voters went to the polls in the first-ever ranked-choice voting election in the state, which uses an electoral system that allows voters to rank candidates by preference on their ballots in rounds. A candidate can win outright with more than 50% of the vote in the first round.

If no candidate receives at least half of the votes, the lowest-ranking candidate is eliminated. Voters who chose the lowest-ranking candidate as their top pick have their votes count for their second-ranked choice. The rounds continue until two candidates remain, with the victory going to the candidate with the most votes in the final rank.

Palin argues the voting system effectively disenfranchised 60% of Alaska voters, considering Peltola won the state’s House special election with only 40% of first-place votes in the initial count. (Read more from “Sarah Palin Condemns Ranked Choice Voting System Following Election” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

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