| |||||||||||||||||||||
Alaska's at-large congressional district | |||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Turnout | 32.2%[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Peltola: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% Palin: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The 2022 Alaska at-large congressional district special election was held on August 16 to fill the seat left vacant after the death of Republican incumbent Don Young.[2] Mary Peltola defeated former governor Sarah Palin in the election, becoming the first Democrat to represent Alaska in the House since 1972, the first Alaska Native elected to Congress, and the first woman elected to represent Alaska in the House.[3]
The election was the first held after Alaska Measure 2 established a new procedure for elections. Under the new system, the winners of a top-four primary advanced to an instant-runoff election. However, Al Gross's withdrawal left only three names on the ballot in the general election.
The runoff count commenced on August 31, after all absentee and overseas ballots were counted.[4][5] Peltola was declared the winner on August 31.[6] The Democratic victory was widely considered an upset due to Alaska's strong Republican lean. Peltola became the first Democrat to win a statewide or congressional election in Alaska since Mark Begich in 2008.[7] She was sworn in to the House of Representatives on September 13.[8]
The results were praised by many pundits and activists, with the pro-IRV lobbyist group FairVote arguing the low number of spoiled ballots proved Alaskans could use and understand the system.[9] Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang said the election served as a model for electing more moderate candidates to office, regardless of partisan affiliation.[10]
By contrast, the election generated criticism from social choice and election scientists over several pathologies.[11][12] More voters ranked Begich above Peltola.[13][14][15][13][15] Later analysis showed the election was a center squeeze, a scenario in instant runoff and plurality voting where a lack of first-preferences causes the candidate closest to the center of public opinion to be eliminated.[11][14][15] Palin played the role of spoiler by knocking Begich out of contention in the first round (despite being the weakest candidate).[16] The election was also notable as a negative vote weight event, where a candidate is eliminated as a result of having too much support; ballots ranking Palin first and Begich second instead helped Peltola to win.[17][18] However, election scientists were careful to note such pathologies likely would have occurred under Alaska's previous primary system as well, leading several to suggest alternative systems.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Since Begich wins both … he is the Condorcet winner of the election … AK election also contains a Condorcet loser: Sarah Palin. … she is also a spoiler candidate
:1
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).However, ranked-choice voting makes it more difficult to elect moderate candidates when the electorate is polarized. For example, in a three-person race, the moderate candidate may be preferred to each of the more extreme candidates by a majority of voters. However, voters with far-left and far-right views will rank the candidate in second place rather than in first place. Since ranked-choice voting counts only the number of first-choice votes (among the remaining candidates), the moderate candidate would be eliminated in the first round, leaving one of the extreme candidates to be declared the winner.
Since Begich wins both … he is the Condorcet winner of the election … AK election also contains a Condorcet loser: Sarah Palin. … she is also a spoiler candidate
Analysis Alaska
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search