Despite their failing policies, looney-tune ideas and radical behavior, there are some things Democrats have long been better at than Republicans.
One of those things is creating creative ways to win or keep power.
But now Sarah Palin is asking for the one thing that could help her defeat the Democrats in November.
How to lose without losing
On August 16, Alaska voters took to the polls to elect a new Congressman for the first time since 1973.
The special election was taking place in the wake of at-large Representative, Republican Don Young’s death.
In a state that had a Republican Representative for 50 years, has two Republican U.S. Senators (albeit a RINO and a moderate), and that went for Donald Trump over Joe Biden by 10-points, it seemed the seat was safe in GOP hands.
60% of Alaska voters cast their ballot for a Republican in the special election.
But after more than two-weeks of counting, Alaskans now have a Democrat Representative, Mary Peltola.
How did that happen?
Three words, one bad policy: Ranked Choice Voting.
Ranked Choice Voting – The Problem
In most states, individual parties use a primary system to select their preferred nominee.
Those nominees then face off in a general election, where whomever gets the plurality of the vote takes the victory.
A few states combine all parties into one “Jungle Primary,” and if no candidate receives more than 50%, the top two vote-getters go head-to-head in a runoff.
Both of those election processes have worked well enough for America throughout our country’s history.
However, a new Democrat scheme that has spread to a handful of places has been hatched to rob Republicans of representation.
The idea behind RCV, according to its supporters, is to end with a candidate that receives a majority of votes, not just a plurality.
The Jungle Primary/Run-off combo already does that, but RCV advocates don’t seem to care.
Ranked Choice Voting Explained
It’s a little different everywhere it’s implemented, but in Alaska, all the candidates from all the parties faced-off in a primary, where the top four candidates moved on to a Fatal Fourway general election.
One of the four candidates dropped out following the primary, so only three candidates, Democrat Peltola and Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich moved on to the finals.
In the general election, voters don’t just select their candidate of choice, but also make second, and depending on the number of candidates, third place choices.
All the votes are then tabulated, if no candidate receives a majority, then the last place finisher is eliminated.
That was the case in the Alaska special election, with Begich being eliminated.
Vote counters then went through Begich ballots again, and assigned all the second-place votes to the appropriate candidates – in essence giving Begich supporters two votes each.
In RCV, the process continues until one candidate has a “majority.”
In this case, enough Begich voters picked Peltola as their second choice, allowing the Democrat to upend Palin by less than 3-points.
Will Begich do the right thing to help the party?
On the same day as the special election, there was also a primary for the same seat, for a November general election.
The same three candidates advanced.
And RCV rules will once again be in effect.
Palin would need to somehow convince enough Begich voters to place her in second over Peltola if she wants to change her fate come November.
Or, she can do something else entirely.
As a way of beating RCV and giving Republican voters in the Red State what they want, Palin is asking Begich to drop out of the race.
But only after Begich first told her she should do the same.
“He keeps calling me a quitter,” Palin said. “Now he wants me, the one who is clearly the only true conservative in this race who can win, he wants me to quit! Now that’s the real joke. Sorry, Nick. I never retreat. I reload.”
Unfortunately, it looks like there will, indeed, be a three-way rematch in November, as Begich’s team has indicated they have no intentions of leaving the race.
Deplorable Daily will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
