‘A Scam to Rig Elections’: Tom Cotton Attacks Ranked-Choice Voting After Sarah Palin Loses to a Democrat
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Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) attacked ranked-choice voting as a “scam to rig elections” after it was announced Alaska’s at-large House seat was won by Democrat Mary Peltola.
The election was held on Aug. 16, but the votes were not tabulated until Wednesday evening, revealing Peltola as the first Democrat to represent the state in the House since 1973.
That was also the same year late Rep. Don Young (R-AK) took office, and held on until March of this year.
Peltola defeated former governor Sarah Palin.
Some political pundits have attributed Palin’s loss to her unpopularity with voters, while others are crediting the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Cotton blamed ranked-choice voting, which Alaskans chose in 2020 at the ballot box.
On Twitter, the Arkansas Republican said Peltola did not actually win and the entire primary was “rigged.”
Ranked-choice voting is a scam to rig elections.
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) September 1, 2022
60% of Alaska voters voted for a Republican, but thanks to a convoluted process and ballot exhaustion—which disenfranchises voters—a Democrat “won.”
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) September 1, 2022
The ranked-choice ballot measure passed on Nov. 3, 2020 by a margin of fewer than 4,000 votes, but was nonetheless chosen by a majority. The measure faced stiff resistance, but was upheld as constitutional.
Ranked-choice voting is confusing to some. Ballotpedia explains:
A ranked-choice voting system (RCV) is an electoral system in which voters rank candidates by preference on their ballots. If a candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, he or she is declared the winner. If no candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated.
First-preference votes cast for the failed candidate are eliminated, lifting the second-preference choices indicated on those ballots. A new tally is conducted to determine whether any candidate has won a majority of the adjusted votes. The process is repeated until a candidate wins an outright majority.
