The New Way Alaskans Vote Could Stop a Sarah Palin Congressional Victory Tuesday – Opinion

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is slated to make her political comeback official in the Tuesday night special election to replace deceased Rep. Don Young, after advancing in June’s GOP primary.

Palin has been the most popular candidate to win. However, Alaska’s new ranking-choice voting system is preventing her from winning. Currently, the race is between Palin, Republican Nathan Begich III, and Democrat Mary Peltola, and the bizarre system of having first, second, and third choices on the ballot could make this race anybody’s game.

Palin, or any other candidate fails to reach 50 percent during the first round. In that case, scrapping will be the next round’s lowest vote-getter. This process continues until the most popular candidate is chosen. The winner will then be determined. The final goal for Palin is to ensure that enough voters chose her, not just the first, but also the second. That likely won’t be the case for Democratic voters, as she is endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Due to the fact that postal ballots have to also be counted on Tuesday, results might not be known.

“In Alaska, we have this bizarre system, this newfangled [system] that’s been newly adopted where we have a ranked-choice voting system, where it doesn’t matter if you win by getting the most votes. Really, it matters if you have more second- and third-place votes, according to how the voters are ranking you,” Palin said at CPAC Texas earlier in August, according to The Washington Examiner.

“It is bizarre, it’s convoluted, it’s complicated, and it results in voter suppression,” she continued.

While the former 2008 Republican Vice Presidential nominee might not make it through Tuesday, she’ll likely have another shot in November. Because the special election falls during the open primary, voters will be able to vote for both the current and next term. The top four vote-getters in Tuesday’s primary will advance, but the three special election candidates will have to duke it out with 19 other candidates, according to The New York Times.

If Palin makes it through, she’ll undoubtedly become one of the most vocal Republicans in the House.

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