What you don't see in this graphic is the party affiliation of the candidates. This is the "beauty" of ranked choice voting if you are destined to lose in a regular head-to-head, legitimate vote: In the House vote, Mary Peltola is D, Sarah Palin and Nick Begich are both R. Ranked choice voting splits the two Republicans and lets the underdog win. Add up Palin's and Begich's votes and the total is larger than Peltola's.
In the Senate race, Tshibaka and Murkowski are both R's (even though the Republicans have censured Lisa and don't consider her one of their own). The Democratic candidate, Chesbro, is so far behind that she isn't significant. BUT none of these numbers are final. Since neither Tshibaka or Murkowski got 50% +1 of the vote, people's second candidate choice will be added to these numbers. One additional note: One thing Republicans suck at is defining a strategy and sticking to it - something the Democrats do very well. Notice that the D's have only ONE candidate on the ballot. The Republicans have anywhere from two to three, splitting the R vote. Sorting out these folks is something best done in PRIMARIES, folks. But the R's are too stupid and too independent to come together and agree that only the highest vote getter in the primary goes to the general election.
So this is a long way from being over. And yes, ranked choice voting should be outlawed. Our state legislators are working on that very thing as we speak. Oh, and none of this takes the inevitable cheating into account... and we know it was there.
What you don't see in this graphic is the party affiliation of the candidates. This is the "beauty" of ranked choice voting if you are destined to lose in a regular head-to-head, legitimate vote: In the House vote, Mary Peltola is D, Sarah Palin and Nick Begich are both R. Ranked choice voting splits the two Republicans and lets the underdog win. Add up Palin's and Begich's votes and the total is larger than Peltola's.
In the Senate race, Tshibaka and Murkowski are both R's (even though the Republicans have censured Lisa and don't consider her one of their own). The Democratic candidate, Chesbro, is so far behind that she isn't significant. BUT none of these numbers are final. Since neither Tshibaka or Murkowski got 50% +1 of the vote, people's second candidate choice will be added to these numbers. One additional note: One thing Republicans suck at is defining a strategy and sticking to it - something the Democrats do very well. Notice that the D's have only ONE candidate on the ballot. The Republicans have anywhere from two to three. Sorting out these folks is something best done in PRIMARIES, folks. But the R's are too stupid and too independent to come together and agree that only the highest vote getter in the primary goes to the general election.
So this is a long way from being over. And yes, ranked choice voting should be outlawed. Our state legislators are working on that very thing as we speak. Oh, and none of this takes the inevitable cheating into account... and we know it was there.