Juneau gets closer to implementing ranked choice voting in local elections starting next year

Final consideration of change affecting Assembly races, but not school board, scheduled Nov. 3

City Hall in downtown Juneau on June 14, 2025. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

Implementing ranked choice voting for Juneau Assembly and mayoral races — but not school board — took a step forward Monday night when the Assembly unanimously approved a motion to advance the proposal "for final action" at its Nov. 3 meeting.

The delay is so residents clearly understand the proposed change in voting process does not apply to this year’s Oct. 7 municipal election. Juneau will be Alaska’s first municipality to implement the methodology that’s been used statewide since 2022.

Ranked choice voting was narrowly approved by voters in 2020 and two ballot measures seeking to repeal it have been narrowly defeated. Votes by Juneau residents in those elections were more favorable toward ranked choice voting than the statewide average.

Discussion during Monday’s meeting generally reflected the larger political divide on the issue, with conservatives opposing the proposal and moderate/liberal participants in favor. Supporters say ranked choice has a moderating impact on who emerges as the winner in multicandidate races. Opponents — Republicans in particular — say the methodology keeps candidates preferred by a majority of its party members from winning.

The sponsor of the local voting change is Assembly Member Ella Adkison, who works as a staff member for Democratic state Sen. Jesse Kiehl of Juneau. She stated at a meeting earlier this month Juneau’s current system means votes can get split among candidates with similar views, which may cause some of them to drop out and give local voters fewer choices.

Ranked choice voting asks voters to list candidates in order of preference. If no candidate gets a majority of first-choice votes then an "instant runoff" eliminates the candidate with the fewest such votes and adds that person’s second-choice votes to the remaining candidates. The process repeats with third-choice, fourth-choice and subsequent choices as necessary until one candidate has a majority.

Juneau’s proposed change does not include school board races since those already use a ranking system where all eligible candidates are competing for the open seats available. Four candidates are seeking three seats in this year’s election, for instance, so all candidates except the one with the fewest votes will be elected unless there are unusual circumstances.

An overview of ranked choice voting published at the city’s website this week states the following are potential advantages and disadvantages: Potential benefits:

• May increase the number of people willing to run for office.

• Winning candidates must have support from the majority of voters.

• Can reduce the impact of vote-splitting among similar candidates.

• Allows voters to express preferences more fully.

  
  

Potential drawbacks: 

• Transitioning to a new election process can be difficult on voters and election staff, requiring voter education for the public and increased training for staff.

• Counting is more complex than current voting system. Election staff would be able to release first-round results on the same schedule as the current system, but would not be able to rank until after all ballots were counted — generally two weeks after election day.

• RCV software would increase the cost of elections by approximately $10,000 per year.

  
  

Among five people offered public testimony on the proposed change during Monday night’s meeting, three spoke in favor of local ranked choice voting and two against.

Paulette Simpson, deputy treasurer of Capital City Republican Women, said ranked choice voting "can be useful at the state level, where multiple candidates vie for office, but at the local level I believe this idea is wasteful and, frankly, frivolous."

"I am not aware of a member of the public ever coming to an Assembly meeting to beg you to enact ranked choice voting for municipal elections," she said. "Yet I read that you have been working on this issue since February, directing staff and our city attorney's office to research and write the ordinance we're discussing tonight. I think most residents would prefer that our city attorney and city staff spend their time and our tax dollars figuring out a legal and compassionate way to help the homeless and protect the businesses struggling to survive in an increasingly unsafe environment."

Molly Duvall, chair of the advocacy group Save Juneau formed in 2023 for causes including opposing a new City Hall, said "if this ranked choice voting is so popular then it really should be a grassroots effort" by voters rather than a decision made by the Assembly.

"You should have the supporters of ranked choice voting get the signatures together, have a petition and get it on the ballot themselves, because I frankly, don't see where that support is coming from," she said.

Among the residents speaking in favor of the change was Rebecca Braun, a policy strategist and grant writer for the Alaska Venture Fund, which states its focus includes equity and sustainability policy initiatives.

"I think that ranking candidates may just make sense for our type of elections," she said. "It's nonpartisan. We don't have primaries, and so ranking enables us to essentially have a runoff if no candidate wins a majority of first-choice votes, but it's cheaper and more efficient than holding a separate runoff."

The Assembly advanced the proposal to its Nov. 3 meeting without discussion among themselves after Assembly Member Wade Bryson made a motion to "set this ordinance for a public hearing at the Nov. 3, 2025, regular Assembly meeting and set it for final action that evening."

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.