A state court judge has invalidated the number of pamphlets used to gather signatures for a campaign to end Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system.
JUNEAU, Alaska — An Alaska state court judge on Friday invalidated numerous booklets used to gather signatures for a bill that seeks to repeal Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, giving election officials a deadline to determine whether enough signatures have still been collected to put the measure on the November ballot.
The ruling from Superior Court Judge Christina Rankin in Anchorage came in a lawsuit brought by three voters seeking to remove the repeal measure from the ballot. Judge Rankin had previously allowed the measure’s proponents to correct errors after petition booklets were submitted earlier this year, and ruled that the elections department’s actions were within its authority when she found the department had complied with deadlines.
Rankin’s new ruling on Friday focused on a challenge to the signature-gathering method that was the subject of a recent court case. Rankin set a deadline by Wednesday for the department to remove the signatures and booklets it considers invalid and to determine whether the measure has enough signatures to get on the ballot.
The state requires that proponents meet certain signature-gathering standards, including collecting signatures from at least three-quarters of the voters in a state congressional district. Supporters of the repeal proposition needed to gather a total of 26,705 signatures.
The plaintiffs allege that petition pamphlets used to gather signatures were improperly left at businesses and distributed to multiple circulators. Experts testifying for the plaintiffs said the questionable practices are “pervasive” in the repeal movement, according to filings by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Scott Kendall, and others.
Kendall was one of the architects of a 2020 ballot initiative that replaced partisan primaries with open primaries and introduced ranked-choice voting in the general election. In an open primary, the top four vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the general election. The new system was first implemented in 2022 and is set to be adopted again this year.
Rankin wrote that there was no evidence of “willful, deliberate, premeditated and widespread fraud” that would warrant a blanket rejection of the petition, but he did find instances in which the signature-gathering process was not properly conducted, disqualifying the booklet.
Former state Attorney General Kevin Clarkson, who represents sponsors of the repeal bill, said in an email Friday that the ruling “appears largely favorable for our clients.”
“We won on many issues and on many of the books they challenged,” he wrote, but he added that the books Rankin rejected would also have to be counted, a process that would be complex and time-consuming.
Kendall said Rankin had invalidated 27 petitions with about 3,000 signatures. “There were clearly serious issues with this petition,” he said in a text message.
The Election Commission still needs to assess whether the bill has received enough signatures in 30 of the 40 House of Representatives districts, “after which all parties will have to consider their options for appeal,” he said.
Patty Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Law and Justice, said the elections department “appreciates the court’s swift action and intends to recount the final signature count in accordance with the court’s ruling as soon as possible.”
