Updated: 30 minutes ago Published: 37 minutes ago

The Alaska Supreme Court is set to hear an appeal next month, challenging an initiative that seeks to repeal ranked choice voting and open primaries.

Oral arguments were scheduled Friday on an expedited basis for Aug. 22 — two days after the primary election. The plaintiffs are requesting that the court issue a decision on whether the initiative is valid by Sept. 3, which is the Alaska Division of Elections’ target date to print ballots for the Nov. 5 general election.

The division in March certified that a group of Alaskans had successfully gathered enough signatures to put an initiative on the general election ballot to repeal Alaska’s new voting system — which was itself narrowly approved by voters through a 2020 ballot measure.

Three Alaska voters filed a lawsuit in April, challenging how the signatures were gathered, and how the Alaska Division of Elections allowed errors in petition booklets to be fixed. The plaintiffs asserted the repeal supporters had likely not collected enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Christina Rankin threw out part of the lawsuit in June that challenged the petition booklet correction process. In July, Rankin disqualified dozens of booklets, after some had been left unattended, and ordered the division to determine if the repeal measure still qualified for the ballot.

After a short review, the Division of Elections said the initiative “remains qualified” for the general election ballot. Rankin’s final judgment in favor of the defendants was issued July 24.

Scott Kendall, an attorney and one of the authors behind the 2020 ballot measure that implemented ranked choice voting, is representing the three plaintiffs. According to court documents, the plaintiffs assert that supporters of repealing Alaska’s new voting system “had not submitted a sufficient number of qualified signatures to the Division before two key statutory deadlines.”

The plaintiffs are appealing on two grounds. They say the Division of Elections used an unlawful process to allow the initiative supporters to fix errors in dozens of petition booklets, and that the the corrected booklets were impermissibly submitted after a statutory deadline.

Kendall said the appeal is intended to ask a novel question for the Alaska Supreme Court: “Do filing deadlines strictly apply to ballot measures as they do to candidate filings?”

If the court sides with the plaintiffs, Kendall said the ranked choice repeal measure would likely not have enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Former Alaska Attorney General Kevin Clarkson, who is appearing on behalf of the ranked choice repeal backers, said he felt confident Rankin’s decision was correct. He said the plaintiffs are not appealing “the part of the case they lost at trial.”

“On the issue they are appealing, the statutes expressly permit the correction of petition booklet certifications before the signatures are counted,” Clarkson said.

Alaska’s voting system, first used in 2022, includes open nonpartisan primary elections. The top four vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the general election. The general election is determined by ranked-choice voting, which will again be used this November.

Oral arguments are scheduled to start at 10 a.m. on Aug. 22. They will be livestreamed online on KTOO.

In 2022, Alaska became the first state in the country to run a top-four open primary in tandem with an instant runoff general election. Alaska also happens to have the largest proportion of Native peoples in the nation, followed by Oklahoma and New Mexico.

Closed primaries were a system through which political parties could control candidate selection and voter choice in our democratic elections. Consider a party primary much like having to win a high school basketball regional tournament in order to qualify to compete for the State title, but where only superfans or parents of the players are allowed to choose the teams.

Many commentators have speculated about the impact of the new open primary system on rural and Alaska Native voters. We set out to analyze the results of that first open primary election in 2022, to let the facts speak for themselves.

There is no way to access records of individual Alaska Native voting behavior at the statewide level. But because there is a distinct group of predominantly Alaska Native communities in rural Alaska, we were able to compare the voter behavior in these communities to voter behavior in communities across the rest of the state. You can see our full report here.

Alaska’s primary elections are typically held during the waning days of summer, a valuable time for Alaska Natives who are hunting, fishing, and gathering their traditional foods before the winter. Extreme geography and adverse weather conditions often hobble precinct operations dependent upon a successful coordination between the Alaska Division of Elections, the U.S. Postal Service, air carriers that carry election equipment, and each precinct’s volunteer voting officials.

The already exciting 2022 open primary was made even more exciting by the special election an essential part of the new election law of 2020, and with an emergent election added to the calendar after the death of a larger-than-life Congressman Don Young in the middle of his term, After the dust settled, Alaskans had 48 different choices in the special election, including many well-known candidates.

Despite challenges with the vote-by-mail format introduced by the special election —with some rural districts posting a 16% rejection rate, four times that of the statewide average— two Alaska Natives nevertheless ranked in the top 5 vote getters! Rural voters then prepared for their first open primary and their first experience of ranked choice voting in the special general election.

We found that voters in predominantly Alaska Native communities were far more likely to vote for a slate of candidates in the open primary that would not have been possible under the previous, partisan system. This means that voters in Alaska Native communities were more likely than the average voter to support a combination of Republicans along with Independents, Democrats, and/or third-party candidates. It is an obvious difference. Voters across the rest of the state “crossover” voted at a rate of 47.4% in the 2022 primary, while voters in predominantly Alaska Native communities “crossover” voted at an astounding rate of 79.9%. This suggests that Alaska Native voters are especially well served by the open primary system.

Our analysis also confirmed what has already been well-established: that there are significant and long-standing obstacles to voter education and voter participation that are unique to rural Alaska and many of these predominantly Alaska Native communities. Language barriers, lack of poll workers and post office staffing in rural villages, the gap between rural priorities and the urban political power centers — all of these things can and have made it harder for rural and Alaska Native people to participate in the process.

However, we found no evidence to suggest that reform is adding to these challenges, and much to indicate that it is not a contributing factor. Primary election turnout actually increased in predominantly Alaska Native communities from 2020 to 2022, correlating with the transition to the open primary. If someone tells you that the new election system discouraged Alaska Native voters from participating, they are likely not looking at the data, nor at history.

Rural priorities are not always best reflected by one party or the other. That’s one reason why Alaska Natives living in rural parts of the state may consistently choose to vote across party lines. It’s why election turnout in predominantly Alaska Native communities surged to incredible levels, at a rate of 70.6 percent when subsistence was on the ballot in 1982.

High turnout in rural Alaska during the subsistence fights of the 1980s and early 90s proves that low turnout in predominantly Alaska Native communities is not inevitable. But if we want to see increased voter participation from Alaska Native people, we need systems and choices that reflect our values and priorities. The open primary and ranked choice voting system seems like it may bring us one step closer to that future.

Going forward, we hope that Alaskans will continue to study and learn about these trends across multiple election cycles in Alaska under this new, open-primary system, including in predominantly Alaska Native communities. Most importantly, when it comes to understanding the impact of opening our elections, we hope that Alaskans will continue to rely on the guidance and expertise of the Alaska Native people who live in and represent these communities, in the same way they’ve successfully stewarded our lands for thousands of years.

Michelle (Macuar) Sparck is the director of Get Out the Native Vote (GOTNV), a statewide nonprofit voter education organization based out of Anchorage under the Cook Inlet Tribal Council. Macuar, a member of the Qissunamiut Tribe of Chevak who grew up in Bethel, went on to become an experienced legislative aide in Washington, D.C. and Juneau.

The views expressed here are the writer’s and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.

Greetings from Alaska! There’s nothing quite like escaping the sweltering dog days of summer in Florida to experience the land of the midnight sun and temperatures that helped me regain my chill.

It was just by luck that my girlfriend, Karissa, invited me on this epic expedition several months ago, prompting my immediate and enthusiastic “Yes!” Our adventure-filled itinerary included breathtaking views on hikes in Denali National Park, a soothing dip in natural hot springs and an icy trek on the Matanuska Glacier. Two other friends joined for the excursion, which featured a rental camper van for driving and sleeping.

The trip of a lifetime began in Anchorage, where we caught Alaska Railroad’s Coastal Classic Train to Seward on a route ranked among the top 10 train rides in North America by National Geographic. On the way to the quaint waterfront town that’s bordered by Resurrection Bay and Kenai Fjords National Park, we gazed in awe at mountains towering over the train, cascading waterfalls and glaciers off in the distance. During our time in the small town of less than 3,000, we embarked on a sea kayaking trip to see otters and bald eagles in their natural habitat and spent an afternoon hiking the Harding Icefield Trail, which overlooks Exit Glacier.

Flatlanders be warned: Hiking up hundreds or thousands of feet of elevation gain during a hike proves challenging when all you have to train with are flights of stairs in parking garages.

After soaking in the waterfront views from Seward and a picturesque return trip on the train, it was time to pick up a rental 2023 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van. The van was decked out with a queen bed, a sink (with a hot water heater!) and plenty of storage. The adventure van included an awning, solar power and all-terrain tires for wherever our travels took us.

We dashed off to Denali National Park, which had just reopened after the Riley Fire near the park’s entrance. During our two-night stay there, we were only able to behold a mere fraction of the massive 6.1-million-acre expanse, which serves as home to North America’s highest peak. On several hikes, we stood amazed at sweeping views of mountains and valleys in front of us, also enjoying some lower elevation hikes through scenic forests, along lakeshores and next to rushing creeks. The fresh mountain air proved to be just what the doctor ordered, and it felt like everything was much bigger and open in Alaska.

Our aching legs needed a reprieve after a few hard hikes, so our next stop was Chena Hot Springs, a refreshing oasis an hour outside of Fairbanks. While the property is a destination for seeing the northern lights during the winter months, we enjoyed a “fire and ice” sort of experience with a soak in the more than 100-degree water and a visit to the on-site Aurora Ice Museum, an indoor building filled with ice sculptures where guests can sip appletinis served in carved-ice martini glasses.

Every stop on our journey benefited from long days when the sun didn’t set until almost midnight, allowing us to fit many activities into a single day.

After a unique dining experience at the Alaska Salmon Bake in Fairbanks and a quick stop at North Pole, Alaska — where we snapped photos with a towering Santa statue — it was time to head south on the Richardson Highway. Running for several hundred miles through Alaska’s interior, the scenic drive is where we camped for a night and hiked to the Castner Glacier ice cave. Along the way, we spotted a mama and baby moose in a pond right next to the road, just a few dozen feet away.

The end of our grand Alaskan adventure featured one of the trip’s biggest highlights: a full-day excursion onto the Matanuska Glacier, which is 27 miles long and 4 miles wide. Led by guides Samantha and Julian, our group of four learned how to use crampons for the first time for traction on ice, then used harnesses and ropes to scale ice walls and repel down frozen canyons. The landscape felt surreal and was certainly a welcome way to enjoy some crisp temperatures far away from the heat of Florida.

Determined to squeeze as much as we could into the final portion of our trip, we sprinted in the van down to the Homer Spit, a narrow finger of land that extends for 4.5 miles into Kachemak Bay. There, we watched a full moonrise after the sun finally set around 11 p.m., then woke the next day to find our first hot shower in days at a nearby campground before feasting on fresh salmon and halibut for lunch. Before hitting the road to catch flights home in Anchorage, we visited the famous Salty Dawg Saloon, established in 1957 and housed in a cabin built in 1897. The building formerly served as the town’s post office, a railroad station, a grocery store and a coal mining office for 20 years.

While the trip seemed to end too soon, I know we made many new memories in the 49th state and relished every second of our time there. Whenever Florida’s heat indexes soar into the triple digits, all I have to do is close my eyes and picture myself back on that glacier to find my chill once again.

Find me @PConnPie on Instagram or send me an email: pconnolly@orlandosentinel.com.