Last year Alaska tried something unique.

It became the first state to use an election system that put all candidates on the same ballot and then allowed voters to rank their preferences, with the top four tellers, regardless of party, going to a runoff. (Go ahead, impress your friends at your holiday barbecue by using the technical terms, general mood, and ranked choice.)

One of the goals of the system, approved by voters in 2020, was to root out extremists by making it more difficult for candidates to get elected simply by appealing to the hardliners of their party’s grassroots.

It worked wonderfully.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, a relatively moderate mainstream Republican, won reelection in November by defeating a MAGA fundamentalist who sought to avenge Murkowski’s vote punishing President Trump for the January 6 uprising.

The state’s only seat in the House was captured by Mary Peltola, a relatively moderate mainstream Democrat, who thwarted a comeback bid from far-right boxer Sarah Palin.

Alaska is a place apart, both physically and in the minds of its many free-thinking residents. The state second

–

Unpleasant

–

last to join the union, followed by Hawaii is both aware and proud of its separateness, epitomized by the way many there refer to the rest of the country

,

at arm’s length, as “Outside”.

So given that distance, it seems unlikely that Alaska offers a model, or at least a step forward, to address the polarization plaguing the country and turn our politics into a constant spectacle of partisan eyeballs and facial claws.

But that seems to be the case.

Here’s how ranking-choice balloting works:

In a typical election, the candidate with the most votes wins. If, according to the ranked-choice system, no candidate receives a majority of the votes of the first choice, a new round of tables begins. The candidate with the worst result is eliminated and those votes are awarded to

their

supporters second choice. The process continues until someone gets a majority.

The idea is that by competing en masse not only to finish first, but also to be voters.

second

choice, successful candidates will have to appeal to a wider segment of the electorate.

As experts recently explained in Anchorage Daily News, “Encouraging politicians to take more extreme positions…

[makes]

our legislatures are increasingly dysfunctional. Instead of meeting in the middle to find solutions that both parties can live with, they are driving lawmakers further apart and making it more difficult to agree.”

The most recent session of the Alaska Legislature proved instructive.

There was less reflexive partisanship and more cooperation across party lines, said those experts, who attribute the change to the state’s revamped voting system. that pays residents annual dividends from Alaska’s oil wealth.

In the Anchorage newspaper, political scientists Glenn Wright, David Lublin and Benjamin Reilly noted

the dividend was smaller than many Republicans would have liked

,

but that left more money for education and programs favored by others.

“A classic political compromise,” they called it, suggesting

“Instead of spending their time bashing the other party

,

Legislators elected under the new system reached across the aisle and negotiated to reach a consensus.

And that is ideally how legislation works.

Naturally, choice voting has become a source of political contention. (Nowadays what isn’t?)

Much of the criticism comes from the right, where opponents mortified by Palin’s loss and Murkowski’s victory have lumped the issue in with such culture-war standbys as critical race theory and gender identification, as well as fears of allegedly rigged elections.

They keep preaching that a man can get pregnant until we believe it,” Art Mathias, an Anchorage church leader who is moving to abolish ranking voting, said at a rally that marked the beginning of the signature-gathering effort. collect. get engaged or it will get worse.”

But the battle for electoral voting is not going smoothly along partisan lines.

Several towns in deep red Utah allow it. Virginia Republicans used the system to choose their 2021 gubernatorial nominee, boosting Glenn Youngkin over a Trumpy alternative and helping the GOP claim the gubernatorial office for the first time in a decade.

Still, it is not difficult to distinguish a red-blue separation.

GOP lawmakers in Idaho, Montana and South Dakota passed legislation this year to prevent ranking-based voting, joining Tennessee and Florida in passing bans in 2022.

Democrats tend to view the system with more favour. In Oregon, lawmakers placed a measure on the November 2024 ballot asking voters whether

implement

ranked choice votes

must be performed

for state and congressional elections.

Nevada voters will pick up the question again next year, too, after electoral voting was approved last November. (The move would change the state constitution, so it requires a second pass.)

Despite claims, the system is stacked against conservatives,

a

general mood

S

and ranked voting does not automatically favor one party over the other. It doesn’t stop even strongly ideological candidates from winning, as long as they get a majority.

Conservative Republican Alaska governor Mike Dunleavy was re-elected in November, the political scientists noted, and Representative David Eastman, a member of the extremist Oath Keepers, was

So

returned to the

state legislature office

.

Alaska is only one state and a quirky one at that.

But the effort to foster consensus and elevate a less performative, more problem-solving approach to politics sets a good example.

More places should try it.