Perhaps no magic trick in recent years compares to how Donald Trump’s successful campaign eliminated talk of voter fraud overnight. All the “Stop the steal!” and all early election claims of irregularities lost among the crickets As soon as he returned, he went the former president’s way with abra-cadabra speed.

This is almost as surprising as a federal prison inmate heading to the ballot for Congress in Alaska. More on this later.

While many looked elsewhere Tuesday, Americans also quietly floated the idea of ​​open nonpartisan primaries and ranked-choice voting in five states and possibly six more once all votes are counted. This, and the disappearance of election deniers, may signal that the status quo in American elections will continue for a long time.

This could also affect the ranked-choice voting experiment in Utah. A pilot program valid only for Utah municipal elections is already on life support here after a narrow miss survive an attempt killing him during the last legislative session. It will end in 2026 anyway.

Alaska’s prisoner candidate

Open primaries, in which anyone can register but only a certain number of people, usually the top four, advance to the general election are not considered here. But Alaska is becoming the poster child for both systems.

This year’s open primaries resulted in a federal prison inmate in New York who had never set foot in Alaska running in the general election; this was a reversal of the stereotypical route from politics to prison.

“The bottom line is, if I’m selected, I expect to be released immediately at that point,” inmate Eric Hafner said. he told NPR from behind bars. Of course. Incarceration provides time to prepare such conspiracies. Coincidentally, he is serving a 20-year prison sentence for threatening various politicians, police, judges and lawyers.

In Alaska, primaries are open to all participants, and the top four candidates advance to the ranked general election. Hafner initially managed to place in the top four with only 0.4% of the vote. But then the two men ahead of him dropped out of the race, moving Hafner to fourth, where the judge ruled he had that right, too.

As I write thisThe race for Alaska’s sole seat in the House of Representatives looks set to trigger a ranked runoff in which no candidate can top 50% in the first round. Hafner, who is listed as a Democrat, is in last place with 1 percent of the vote, but his presence could influence the eventual winner, who currently has 49 percent.

How does ranked voting work?

In ranked voting, people are asked to rank all the candidates on the ballot according to their preferences. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the first-place votes after all the votes are counted, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and his voters’ second choices are distributed among the rest. This continues in subsequent rounds until someone gets over 50%.

Two years ago in Alaska, former governor Sarah Palin lost a race for a congressional seat and was quick to blame ranked voting; This resonated with many Republicans; Others, including Trump, rudely called it “ridiculous ranked-choice voting.”

Unsurprisingly, in a separate poll this year, Alaskans were asked whether they wanted to get rid of the open primary ranking system. As I write this, a slim majority is in favour, although the outcome is too close to call. We must pay attention.

Utah’s election challenge

These new and unconventional voting systems concern Utah because, thanks to changes in campaign laws, more people are participating in primary voting by collecting petition signatures.

Utah’s newest senator, John Curtis, won the four-way race for his party’s nomination. He cleared it by over 50 percent. But Utah’s third district’s newest congressman, Mike Kennedy, won. five way primary received far less than half the votes.

For now, Utahns seem happy with this situation, and Kennedy winning the general election by over 60 percent (based on incomplete results) gives him a clear mandate. But what if one day multi-candidate primaries result in a winner who finishes in the 20 percent or less? Should the state have some kind of runoff provision?

If so, I doubt it will be through ranked-choice voting.

That doesn’t mean it’s a bad system, especially for nonpartisan municipal races. Just adds one layer of complexity and another chance to cry foul. People who readily accept allegations of fraud will not be receptive to most new voting systems.

bipartisan concerns

Today’s opponents of open primaries and ranked-choice voting are different from election deniers. They increasingly look like both mainstream Democrats and Republicans. Fans say this is because the main parties Concerns about the rise of independents.

Meanwhile, voters in Washington D.C. and four other cities An overwhelming majority approved ranked-choice voting in this week’s municipal elections.

This is very convenient. This idea probably belongs to city elections, at least for now.