Juneau Assembly tables local ranked choice voting indefinitely
- Mark Sabbatini
- Nov 17
- 3 min read
"I just don't think this is the right time to implement this ordinance," says Ella Adkison, who originated proposal to make Juneau the first in Alaska to use the methodology for municipal elections
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
A proposed ordinance that would have made Juneau the first municipality in Alaska to implement ranked choice voting at the local level was tabled indefinitely by the Assembly on Monday night, with the member who introduced the proposal saying the time isn’t right for it in the wake of the just-completed local election.
The motion came after public testimony by 10 residents, none of them in favor of passing the measure.
Assembly Member Ella Adkison said she still believes ranked choice voting in municipal elections will benefit Juneau and that most residents support the methodology. However, she asked that the proposal that’s been debated by committees and the full Assembly for the past several months be put on hold due to larger issues city leaders are now facing.
"I think it is the right choice for Juneau," she said of her proposal. "That being said, this last election cycle we were handed budget cuts. We are going to have to cut services and we are going to have to lay people off, and that is a thing we are going to work together as a community to get through. But it's going to be a really tough time for Juneau, and we're going to have to spend a lot of time and energy as a community getting through that hard time. And I just don't think this is the right time to implement this ordinance."
The Assembly agreed unanimously to table the ordinance without further discussion.
Members took a similar action in August by delaying a vote until after this year’s Oct. 7 election, in order to make it clear to voters the change would not be implemented until the 2026 municipal election. Adkison, after Monday’s meeting, said her intent in tabling the proposal is to further postpone the issue beyond the 2026 local election.
The proposed ordinance would have implemented ranked choice for "single-candidate" races — meaning almost exclusively Assembly races since Juneau Board of Education races typically involve a pool of candidates seeking multiple open seats (five candidates sought three school board seats in last month’s election, for instance).
Alaska voters approved ranked choice voting in 2020 for statewide elections — including legislative, congressional and gubernatorial races — with the methodology first used in 2022. Supporters said ranked choice, along with open primaries that advanced the top four candidates to the general election regardless of party, generally resulted in a more moderate slate of winners in key races. However, opponents asserted the ranking system disenfranchised some voters, with conservatives in particular saying candidates their party members favored fared worse than they would have with a traditional voting system.
Ballot measures seeking to repeal ranked choice voting failed by narrow margins in 2022 and 2024. Another repeal effort for the 2026 election is underway.
All but one of the 10 people offering public testimony Monday night opposed the measure, with the remaining person stating it would have mixed impacts and focusing his remarks mostly on improving the legibility of ballots. Most of those testifying said the Assembly should allow voters to decide if ranked choice should be used at the local level if leaders are interested in the concept.
"I think it was a good decision for state elections, not for local elections," said Beth McEwen, a longtime municipal clerk for the city who retired earlier this year. "Local elections are non-partisan. The state has a partisan system, and we have primaries and general elections at the state we don't have that at the local level. I think this is an unnecessarily confusing thing when you have both races that have multi-seat races as well as single-seat races, and when you're trying to describe to voters that you're going to rank choice vote only those that are single-seat versus those that are multi-seat it confuses the voters."
"So I would urge you not to pass this ordinance, or if you do choose to pass ranked choice voting, as the previous speaker said, I would also urge you to put it out to the voters to see what they feel like."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
