Democrats Cheat with RCV and How to Use it Against Them
By now Alaskans are aware that Democrats use the convoluted Ranked Choice Voting system to steal elections. It delivered the 2022 House election to a weak Democrat facing stronger competition, but thanks to RCV, Mary Peltola is Alaska’s Representative in Congress.
Recently Suzanne Downing of the Must-Read Alaska website pointed out another way that the Democrats are trying to cheat using RCV (Link), and it is in Sarah Vance’s Alaska House District 6 race. Downing’s article also shows how conservatives can use RCV against the cheaters.
Sarah Vance is a strong conservative voice in the Alaska Legislature and has had broad support in House District 6, handily winning reelection there. She has won each of her last 3 races by a margin of more than 8% of votes cast. Democrats are smart enough to have figured out that a Democrat running against a strong conservative Republican like Sarah Vance is a fool’s errand, especially in a presidential election year with a high voter turnout. What is a Democrat to do? Why, they are trying to run as Republicans or non-partisans to hide their true loyalties from the voters.
Downing pointed out that “Republican” candidate Dawson Slaughter has received a contribution from a partisan Democrat in the Alaska Legislature and supposed non-partisans Brent Johnson and Alana Greer, while registered as non-partisan have received help from the Alaska Democrat party. It is pretty clear what is going on in the District 6 election. Democrats know that they will get shellacked if they attempt to run openly as Democrats against Representative Vance. Hiding their party loyalty is an attempt to fool the voters. The tactic might have better success in an off-year election with a low voter turnout. Fortunately, this presidential election year will have a high turnout, so Vance should win handily.
The District 6 election shows just another way the Democrats plan to cheat using RCV. While there is a possibility that RCV will be removed by the initiative on November’s ballot, but what if it isn’t? Republicans need to start using RCV against the Democrats. If RCV remains part of Alaska’s election system, in future elections Republicans should run multiple candidates registered as Democrats in every election race. Put 3 or 4 faux Democrats up against the legitimate Democrat candidate. In some of these races having many Democrat choices will dilute the intent of the liberal voters and allow Republicans to steal the races. The filing fee for state legislature races is only $30.00. Consider the filing fee a campaign contribution to the Republican running in the race.
Here is an example of how this could work. Take the Senate District H seat that was a close race in 2022. Matt Claman (D) won with 51.8% of the vote over Mia Costello (R) who had 47.9% of the vote. Only 597 votes separated them with no other candidates in the race. Imagine if there were 2 additional faux Democrats in the race, meaning a total of 3 Democrat candidates and 1 Republican on the ballot. Without even having to campaign, this large number of Democrats could dilute the liberal vote and could have delivered the race to Republican Mia Costello. It would be the Peltola election in reverse. This is how Republicans can use RCV against the Democrats. It is unethical, but that hasn’t prevented the Dems from doing it.
This is exactly what Democrats are trying to do now in the House District 6 race. It is time for Republicans to wise up to this tactic and start fighting fire with fire. It will only be when Democrats lose elections because of RCV that there will be enough support to remove this abomination from our state's election laws.
Citations:
https://mustreadalaska.com/challengers-of-rep-sarah-vance-have-this-one-weird-thing-in-common/