Letter: Alaska elections should be a model for Utah
Alaska is at least as conservative as Utah. They totally changed their election process. The first part is a nonpartisan pick one primary. Anyone can run and you don’t have to fight through party primaries dominated by the extreme elements of either party. Your name is listed and your party affiliation is written in small print by your name. Voters select one candidate in the primary, and EVERYONE votes. The top 4 candidates go to the general election. Their general election senate race listed 3 Republicans and 1 Democrat. Murkowski (R) Tshibaka (R) Kelley (R) and Chesbro (D).
When you vote in the general election you rank your choices. For example Chesbro #1 Murkowski #2 Kelly #3 Tshibaka #4.
When the votes were tabulated no one had over 50%, so the ranked choice kicked in. Murkowski had about 1,000 more votes than Tshibaka and these were the 2 top vote getters at about 43% each. So when the number 2 choice votes for Kelly and Chesbro were added to Murkowski and Tshibaka, Murkowski had 54% and Tshibaka had 46%. Plainly Alaska wanted Murkowski. However, it seems very possible that she would have been eliminated in a normal Republican primary. Seems like a far superior system to me. Some advantages.
1 Everyone votes in the primary.
2 You don’t have great candidates eliminated by extreme party politics.
I think this would restart interest in Utah and get more people involved in what is now a closed society. Imagine if we had these 4 candidates on the last November’s ballot.
Becky Edwards
Mike Lee
Evan Mc Mullin
Kael Weston
Lynn Wood
Ogden