The Alaska Division of Elections completed the recount of Ballot Measure 2 on Monday, confirming the initiative’s narrow defeat in the Nov. 5 election.
Out of more than 341,000 votes cast, the 737-vote margin of defeat certified on Nov. 30 changed by just six votes, widening the margin to 743. The certified margin was well within the 0.5% required for a state-funded recount, which the Alaska Republican Party requested.
The results mean that the state’s open primary system and ranked-choice voting system will remain in place for at least one more election cycle. This cycle will include an open race for governor and the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
Political observers were right that it was unlikely that such a large margin would survive a recount. A complete hand recount of the ballot measure that installed the voting system in 2020 showed that the state’s voting machines, the much-maligned Dominion ballot-scanning machines, are extraordinarily accurate.
Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher, a Republican who declined to say that Biden fairly won the 2020 election when she was appointed to the position, said that the machines’ proven accuracy played into this recount. The recount was conducted by scanning ballots through those Dominion machines, with some precincts pulled for hand counts to ensure the machine count was right.
Stacey Stone, the Alaska-based counsel for the Alaska Republican Party, told the Anchorage Daily News that she appreciated the Division of Elections’ professionalism in their work. However, she said the state could do better communicating with the public to head off concerns.
“We wanted to confirm every vote counted, and we’ve identified ways we can conduct elections better going forward,” she said. “There is always a greater need for transparency and communication, particularly when races are this close, and we hope the division will reflect on ways they can provide the public with greater information and certainty in the election process.”
While the Alaska Republican Party’s legal effort has been focused on the recount, several Republican legislators and conservative media outlets have been busy spreading conspiracies and accusations to explain away the measure’s failure. That has included baseless claims accusing unnamed hackers, “illegal aliens,” and the Division of Elections itself of skewing the results.
On Monday, that messaging appears to have shifted, when the conservative Alaska Watchman published an op-ed titled “Weaponizing Alaska’s ranked-choice voting is feasible.” Largely suggesting Democrats will run “faux Republicans” to dilute races in their favor and suggests that Republicans could employ such a strategy in the future.
However, that overlooks the fact that conservative Republicans are accused of doing just that in two key state Senate races in this election and ultimately lost both.
Backers of the initiative, who racked up more than $100,000 in fines over the course of the campaign for messy, inaccurate and incomplete reporting and a scheme to filter money through a fake church, have indicated they plan to push for another repeal in 2026.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
