(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) In order to further guarantee leftist victories in his state, Georgia’s RINO secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, floated the idea of ranked-choice voting that follows the example of states like Maine and Alaska.
In the wake of a largely successful midterme election that saw record-breaking turnout, Raffensperger made the announcement last week that he would push the state legislature for several proposals tampering with its voting laws, Reason reported.
First, Raffensperger said he wants to open up early voting to make it more accessible.
Second, he wants to move the runoff requirement from 50% to 45% so that candidates like Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock need only a plurality instead of an outright majority to win in a crowded field that includes third-party spoiler candidates.
Lastly, Raffensperger called for ranked-choice voting that would allow voters to rank all candidates in order of preference.
If no candidate wins a majority, then the lowest-performing candidate is eliminated and his or her voters’ ballots are tallied again, with the second choices counted first instead. This repeats until a candidate passes 50%.
In effect, this means that centrist GOP candidates like Raffensberger would enjoy a systemic advantage in races against those farther to the right, even if they would otherwise be eliminated in the primary.
Already, it has resulted in the triumph of neoliberal centrists in places like Alaska, where the system allowed incumbent RINO Sen. Lisa Murkowski to oust the more heavily favored, Trump-endorsed candidate, Kelly Tshibaka, in the recent midterms.
After both qualified for the general election alongside Democrat Pat Chesbro, Murkowski was able to pad her lead over Tshibaka once Chesbro was eliminated.
The rank-voting scheme in Alaska was rammed through in 2020 via ballot proposition.
While the RINO incumbent Murkowski steadfastly insisted that the referendum “was an initiative led by the people in the state of Alaska,” the campaign for so-called Ballot Measure 2 was driven by a partisan PR firm headed by two former Murkowski staffers, as well as her 2022 campaign’s communications director.
“It’s clear from the ranked choice tabulations that Sen. Lisa Murkowski has been re-elected, and I congratulate her on that,” Tshibaka wrote after the race was called.
“The new election system has been frustrating to many Alaskans, because it was indisputably designed as an incumbent-protection program, and it clearly worked as intended.”
I'm proud of the race we ran and I will always stand up for Alaskans. Read my full statement below: pic.twitter.com/VPq3UAqXDb
— Kelly Tshibaka – Text KELLY to 20903 (@KellyForAlaska) November 24, 2022
