Ballot Measure No. 2: 24ESEG - An Act Restoring Political Party Primaries, Ending Ranked-Choice General Elections, and Repealing Recent Campaign Finance Laws

Argument for

By Mead Treadwell, former Lt. Governor of Alaska; Craig Campbell, former Lt. Governor of Alaska; Loren Leman, former Lt. Governor of Alaska

Loaded LanguageExaggeration/HyperboleBandwagon AppealScapegoatingAppeal to FearCard StackingName Calling

Voting Yes on Ballot Measure 2 restores Alaska’s elections to how they were before 2020: 1. End Ranked Choice Voting 2. Bring Back Open Primaries 3. Restore Pre-2020 Campaign Disclosure Laws (1) Yes on 2 Ends Ranked Choice Voting

• Dark Money: Out-of-state dark money groups have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to sell Alaskans on ranked choice voting.

• Banned in 19 States: Dark money billionaires from the lower 48 are losing the fight for ranked choice voting all over the country. They hope that, if they spend enough dark money here, Alaskans will keep their failed system.

Loaded Language · “Dark money billionaires”, “failed system”, “dark money” — Frames opponents as 'dark money billionaires' who are 'losing the fight' in charged terms.

Exaggeration/Hyperbole · “losing the fight for ranked choice voting all over the country” — Claims the policy is losing 'all over the country' and implies broad rejection, overstating the evidence.

Bandwagon Appeal · “Banned in 19 States” — Implies that because many states banned it, ranked choice voting must be bad.

Scapegoating · “They hope that, if they spend enough dark money here” — Casts outside billionaires as a group behind the system, based on membership rather than specific actions.

• Complicated Ballots: Ranked choice ballots are a complicated mess. Ending ranked choice voting will return to simple, One Person, One Vote elections.

• Trashed Ballots: Thousands of ballots don’t count every year. Ending ranked choice voting will ensure that election results represent the will of all voters, not just the ones who properly fill out an overly-complex ballot.

• Manipulated Results: Due to low turnout, trashed ballots, and incorrectly filled out ballots, the results of every election are not representative of Alaskans. This harms Alaskans, but helps candidates supported by the out-of-state dark money.

Exaggeration/Hyperbole · “the results of every election are not representative of Alaskans” — Claims that the results of every election are unrepresentative, an absolute overstatement.

Loaded Language · “Manipulated Results”, “trashed ballots” — 'Manipulated Results' and 'trashed ballots' are emotionally charged framing implying deliberate tampering.

Appeal to Fear · “This harms Alaskans, but helps candidates supported by the out-of-state dark money” — Suggests that outside money harms Alaskans through rigged outcomes, creating a sense of threat.

• High Risk: Ranked choice voting has created many documented cases of election irregularities. Worse, it is impossible to verify those questionable results by human hand count - instead we have to just trust a computer algorithm.

• Waiting Weeks for Results: Results already take forever to collect from across Alaska. Ranked choice voting makes that problem even worse by delaying results for weeks.

(2) Yes on 2 Brings Back Open Primaries

• Bring Back Open Primaries: Yes on 2 will *not* close Alaska’s primaries. That’s a lie. Our primaries will return to the pre-2020 system that was open to 100% of Alaskans - including those who are not members of any party.

• Alaska’s History of Open Primaries: A nonpartisan study by the Bipartisan Policy Center rated Alaska’s elections before the 2020 Jungle Primary system as “Open.” That’s because they were Open to 100% of Alaskan voters. A Yes vote on 2 restores that same Open Primary system.

• Dark Money Lies: The same out-of-state money falsely claiming that Yes on 2 will close Alaska’s primaries actually funded the nonpartisan study that rated our elections as “Open.” So, they know better. They must just think Alaskans are dumb.

Loaded Language · “Dark Money Lies” — The charged label 'Dark Money Lies' and the word 'falsely' frame opponents as deceitful rather than rebutting their argument.

Card Stacking · “actually funded the nonpartisan study that rated our elections as “Open.”” — Presents a single selective claim about who funded the study to discredit the opposing argument, without addressing the substance of the claim.

Name Calling · “They must just think Alaskans are dumb.” — Attributes contempt for Alaskans to opponents, a derogatory insinuation used to discredit them instead of engaging their arguments.

• End the Jungle Primary: Yes on 2 will end the complicated jungle primary system that resulted in 17 candidates for governor this year and 48 candidates for Congress in 2022.

(3) Yes on 2 Restores Pre-2020 Campaign Disclosure Laws

• Dark Money is Still Flowing: The same out-of-state billionaires claiming that a Yes on 2 will cause dark money to flow into Alaska have spent tens of millions of dollars in dark money to protect ranked choice voting.

Scapegoating · “The same out-of-state billionaires” — Blames a class of people, 'out-of-state billionaires', as a group for the dark money problem around ranked choice voting.

• Defeat Ranked Choice Dark Money: Yes on 2 will defeat the largest source of dark money Alaska has ever seen - the tens of millions of dollars spent to support ranked choice voting.

From elections.alaska.gov, the official voter guide.

Argument against

By Nicole Borromeo, President, ANCSA Regional Association; Sen. Cathy Giessel, Senate Majority Leader (R); Joelle Hall, President, Alaska AFL-CIO

Loaded LanguageAppeal to FearGlittering GeneralitiesBlack-and-White FallacyScapegoatingName Calling

Measure 2 would flood Alaska with untraceable campaign cash, take away our freedom to vote for any candidate we choose, and allow politicians to win without a majority of the vote. To stop Dark Money and to stop political insiders from taking away your right to vote for who you want, VOTE NO. Alaska’s election system has three parts that together make us unique from any other state in the country:

Loaded Language · “Dark Money”, “political insiders” — Emotionally charged wording like 'flood' and 'untraceable campaign cash' frames the measure as a threat.

Appeal to Fear · “take away our freedom to vote for any candidate we choose”, “political insiders from taking away your right to vote” — Warns of dire consequences such as losing the freedom to vote to push a 'no' vote.

Glittering Generalities · “our freedom to vote” — Invokes the vague, positive value of 'freedom' as a rhetorical flourish.

Black-and-White Fallacy · “To stop Dark Money and to stop political insiders from taking away your right to vote for who you want, VOTE NO” — Frames the choice as simply voting no to stop these harms, leaving no alternative.

• Dark Money disclosure laws give us the right to know who is spending in our elections and require outside spenders to publicly disclose the true source of their funding.

• Open primaries ensure political parties do not control our primary elections and that every Alaskan has the right to vote for whichever candidates we want.

• Ranked choice voting ensures that the winning candidate must earn the support of a majority of the voters. Ballot Measure 2 would get rid of all three parts. Why are the sponsors of this initiative ONLY talking about repealing ranked choice voting, with no mention of the flood of anonymous campaign cash coming our way if it passes?

Because they are trying to hide what this measure is really about:

• Ballot Measure 2 gets rid of campaign finance transparency requirements and allows secret, undisclosed spending in Alaska’s elections.

• Ballot Measure 2 also gives political party bosses the right to deny unaffiliated voters the ability to vote in primary elections. 60%+ of Alaskan voters are unaffiliated. Voting No protects voter freedom:

• Voting No says NO to Outside Billionaires buying our elections with no accountability.

Loaded Language · “buying our elections with no accountability” — Emotionally charged phrasing like 'buying our elections with no accountability' frames the opponents as corrupting democracy.

Scapegoating · “Outside Billionaires buying our elections” — Blames a whole class ('Outside Billionaires') for corrupting elections based on group membership rather than specific actions.

• Voting No affirms that Alaskans have the right to know who is spending in our elections.

• Voting No protects every Alaskans’ freedom to vote in every election. A few questions to consider before you vote:

• Do you think we should have LESS transparency in our elections?

• Do you think names of those spending money in Alaska’s elections should be kept SECRET?

• Do you think we should give more power and influence to political party insiders and their outside billionaire donors?

• Do you think we should allow political parties to ban 60%+ of Alaskans from voting in primary elections just because they prefer not to join a party? If your answers to any of these questions is NO, you should vote NO on Ballot Measure 2. This is the third time in six years that Alaskans are being asked to vote on our election system.

Special interest groups and political party insiders are demanding we waste more time and money on this costly repeat ballot measure so that they can take power away from the voters and back for themselves. This issue is not Democrats vs. Republicans. It is Alaskans vs. Outside Billionaires and political insiders. Vote No on Measure 2 to stop Dark Money and protect Alaskans’ independence.

Loaded Language · “waste more time and money”, “take power away from the voters and back for themselves”, “stop Dark Money” — Charged framing of opponents as self-serving power-grabbers wasting resources.

Black-and-White Fallacy · “It is Alaskans vs. Outside Billionaires and political insiders.” — Frames the issue as only a two-sided contest between Alaskans and outsiders/insiders.

Name Calling · “Outside Billionaires and political insiders” — Labels opponents with derogatory terms to discredit them.

From elections.alaska.gov, the official voter guide.

Supporting

Repeal Now

Ballot measure committee

Raised $2,541,708 · spent $2,035,882 · as reported through Oct 2, 2026

Largest contributors as filed:

• Aurora Action Network · $2,346,000
  Political action committee
• Bates, Kyle · $30,000 · individual
• Repeal Now · $16,365
  Ballot measure committee
• Lot Inc. · $10,000
  Company
• Beautiful America · $8,385
  Political action committee

Real Repeal

Ballot measure committee, sponsored by Ken McCarty (filer's title with group: Sponsor, APOC registration)

Raised $743 · spent $743 · as reported through Oct 2, 2026

Largest contributors as filed:

• McCarty, Ken · $623 · individual
• Schneider, Teresa · $71 · individual
• Howard, Carl · $49 · individual

Opposing

No on 2

Ballot measure committee

Raised $8,757,237 · spent $7,899,099 · as reported through Oct 2, 2026

Largest contributors as filed:

• Unite America PAC, Inc · $5,067,973
  Political action committee · federal PAC contributions, 2025–26: $5,000 to Democratic and $10,000 to Republican candidates and party committees (FEC)
• Voters for the American Center, Inc · $1,500,000
  Other
• National Education Association · $700,500
  Labor union · federal PAC contributions, 2025–26: $1,966,500 to Democratic and $11,000 to Republican candidates and party committees, $35,000 to others (FEC)
• Carroll, Jason · $500,000 · individual
• Way Back PAC · $275,000
  Political action committee · federal PAC contributions, 2025–26: $108,500 to Democratic and $0 to Republican candidates and party committees, $30,000 to others (FEC)

Alaska Ballot Fund

Ballot measure committee

Raised $100,000 · spent $100,000 · as reported through Oct 2, 2026

Largest contributors as filed:

• SEIU 775, Amber · $100,000
  Labor union