ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Ballot Measure 2, an initiative to repeal Alaska’s open primary and ranked-choice voting system, narrowly failed in the recent election cycle, but the sponsor of the measure is not ready to give up just yet.

After a recount revealed the ballot measure failed by 743 votes, instead of the 737 originally counted, sponsor Phil Izon submitted the paperwork on Monday to get back on the ballot for 2026.

At the Absentee and Petition Office in Anchorage, Izon started the process again by submitting an initiative petition with the signatures of 214 qualified registered voters to serve as sponsors; only 100 are required.

“We have a pretty good amount of people that are really motivated … and they ultimately didn’t like the fact that we lost by small percentages,” Izon said.

Within 60 calendar days after receipt, the office of Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom will notify the sponsor if the application is denied or certified.

After that, the signature-gathering process begins to get on the ballot officially.

Izon said the spirit of the ballot measure is the same, but some fundamental differences need to be made to the ballot language.

He said some voters found the ballot language confusing and thought a “no” vote was for repeal.

Instead, they should have been voting “yes,” Izon said.

The ballot initiative to implement ranked-choice voting and open primaries was approved by Alaskan voters in 2020 and used for the first time in the 2022 election cycle.

He said as the sponsor, he doesn’t get the privilege to write the ballot measure language; state officials write it based on what the sponsor summarized in the written petition.

Izon said this time around, he hopes the language is written clearer; if it’s not, he is prepared to go to court over it.

“I believe language played a role in 2020, and I believe it played a role in 2024, so I do not want a repeat of that in 2026,” Izon said.

Ironically, the ballot measure’s sponsors say they want a repeal of the state’s current election system because they believe voters find it confusing.

In the current system, the top four primary finishers advance to the general election, and then voters rank the candidates by preferred choice. If no candidate receives a majority of votes in the first round, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and the candidate’s votes are redistributed according to each voter’s second preferred choice.

Democrat Lee Hammermeister, who joined Izon on Monday as a co-sponsor and lost a recent Eagle River Senate race this November, said it’s time for Alaska to return to a traditional system.

Like many opponents of ranked-choice voting, Hammermeister points to the number of voters who don’t rank the candidates and only vote for one.

“[There are] people either not understanding it or entirely rejecting using the ranked-choice voting system,” Hammermeister said. “It just turns into something that’s very confusing, and then it just gets very convoluted, both on the voter side and then on the candidate side as well. So I like a simple system.”

Proponents of open primaries and ranked-choice voting argue that most Alaskan voters are nonpartisan and do not identify with a political party. They believe that the current system provides voters with more choices and a greater voice beyond the limitations of the political parties.

Izon said if the ballot measure fails in 2026, he might give one more try in 2028, but in the end, he thinks it might be something that the legislature will have to take up.

“I’ve been in a lot of communication with a bunch of legislators that have actually moved bills through the Senate and the House,” he said. “[I’ve] got a lot of support from those people, and I would love to see it go through that direction.”

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Cheyenne Taylor turned 24 years old, and on Sunday, the only gift she wanted was for her sister’s body to be found.

“We need that closure so bad,” she said in an interview from her home in Tennessee.

Hawaiian authorities suspended the multi-day search for 32-year-old Lauren Cameron of Anchorage over the weekend, three days after she went missing in the waters off the north shore of Kaua’i.

Cameron was vacationing on the island of Kaua’i with her boyfriend, Anchorage resident Torin Blaker. The pair were hiking the Na Pali coast on Wednesday, Dec. 11, and had stopped at Hanakāpī‘ai Beach.

According to a release from the Kaua’i Fire Department, rescuers responded to the area shortly after 3 p.m. on reports that Cameron had entered the water and was swept into the ocean by strong currents.

Taylor said authorities in Kaua’i — including the fire department and the Coast Guard — have been very communicative about the search, making sure friends and family members had the latest information.

She also heard from a man who said he and his wife were hiking in the area when they saw Cameron that day. Taylor said her sister was a good swimmer but knew better than to swim in dangerous waters and was only rinsing off after the hike. The man told her Cameron was in water no deeper than her ankles when he saw her.

“He said that she was just washing off, and he said he and his wife went on to walk a little bit more and they started hearing screaming for help because that’s when the wave came in and took Lauren,” Taylor said.

Taylor is also grateful for another man she hasn’t spoken to who swam out in the choppy water to try and save Cameron by delivering some sort of floatation device.

What happened next is unclear, but Taylor said her sister wasn’t able to hang on.

“I just want to thank him, I do, he risked his own life for my sister’s life and it means a lot to us,” she said.

Taylor described her sister as adventurous, loving, and kind to all, a sentiment echoed by her long-time boyfriend, Torin Blaker.

Blaker wrote that he is devastated by the loss, and said in a tribute written to Cameron that “she loved life.”

“She loved its challenges, for a challenge equals a solution to which she could find,” the statement read. “She loved adventure, for around every bend was something new. She loved love, for it is the binding that makes us human.“

Blaker thanked first responders in Hawaii as well as the support from the Alaska Division of Forestry where he works and the Anchorage Health Department where Cameron was employed.

Blaker’s full tribute to Lauren:

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Sam Wright is a lifelong Alaskan born and raised in Homer. He has fished for over 30 years for crab, flatfish, Pacific cod and other species in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska.

Dan Carney is an Alaskan, homesteader, farmer, fisherman, 43-year Bering Sea survivor.

Jason Chandler was born in Kodiak and is a lifelong resident. He has participated in multiple fisheries over more than 30 years and is now owner/operator of his family’s trawl vessel.

Kiley Thomson is a 32-year resident of Sand Point who fishes for salmon, crab, pollock and cod in the Gulf of Alaska. He is president of the Peninsula Fishermen’s Coalition and the Area M Seiners Association organizations, representing small vessels in Alaska groundfish and salmon fisheries respectively.