It was really great to talk with Barbara about the ballot measures being considered this election cycle, there is ballot measure 1 that is pertaining to the renewal of the tax cap, then there is ballot measure 2, which would repeal ranked choice voting. I’m so glad Barbara came on to talk about these because when I hear the advertising for these two measures it is absurd the framing that they try to use to outright trick voters, even the language in the ballot measures is deceptive, we are going to go into these tactics and what they are trying to do, and that if you are resorting to these methods, what does that say about the measures you are advocating for?
Ballot Measure 1 (October Election)
Vote Yes to Renew the Tax Cap
This BM is pertaining to the tax cap, this is the same thing that we voted on in the special election in May, although then we voted No to decline the increase in property taxes, in this election a Yes vote will affirm the renewal of the tax cap that has stood for over 40 years. This is something that we are required to vote on every so often, and the assembly members that advocated for us to hold the special election in May knew that this was going to be on the ballot later in October. One can only speculate as to why they wanted to try and put it to a vote twice in one year. The idea that any assembly members would advocate to increase the tax burden on borough residents in the current economic environment in a year where they were up for reelection is a very short-sighted strategy, or in the case of Assembly woman Savanna Fletcher is seeking a promotion to the state legislature. Fletcher along with Kristen Kelly and Eric Armstrong, both of whom work in education and the tax increase was to help with the education budget.
Ballot Measure 2 (November Election)
Vote Yes to Affirm the Repeal of Ranked Choice Voting
This one we need to win, the implementation of RCV was something that was slipped in during the 2020 election and got in behind a very deceptive marketing campaign in which you may remember the ads saying that it would get the dark money out of our elections, every ad that’s all it would say, it wasn’t until I caught an article by Must Read Alaska where they pointed out that the last paragraph of the ballot measure they explain how this would fundamentally change the way we do elections and introduce RVC, the measure barely passed by less than 1% which should have triggered a recount, the recount never happened and it passed. The next year we got stuck with Mary Peltola a democrat as our lone representative in the House as Republicans did not understand how the system worked and ended up splitting the vote between two candidates and the dems ran just the one and got all their support and won the election despite the majority of voters choosing a republican.
Well, the deception continues as they try and trick people again into voting to keep this abomination, that has been a disaster for both parties. It renders primaries completely useless and opens them up to allow opposing party members to vote in each other’s primaries. There were only 2 races in the state that had any candidates removed to get down to the maximum 4 candidates. This gives the parties and its voters less control over who represents them, but when you hear the ads for this BM it will say to “vote No to keep it and the freedom of open primaries”. One ad said that we need to keep RCV because “dark money” and “special interests are trying to repeal RCV. When nothing could be further from the truth, in fact the only reason that the option to repeal RCV is on the ballot is due to the amazing effort by grassroots activists that collected so many more than needed signatures because of the efforts by democrats and the big money behind them filing lawsuits to have signatures thrown out, challenges that went all the way to the state supreme court and thankfully were ruled against so that we can do away with this scam that gives the minority candidate a better chance of winning.
I hope this was helpful, these are some really important issues that they are letting us make the call, so get out and vote! Early voting has begun for the October 1st municipal elections and the tax cap, so take your friends and family if they don’t like paying taxes, and when they undoubtedly say no, inform them with some clips from this interview! Share it around and subscribe if you like what you're hearing.
Assemblywoman Barbara Haney and I Talk Ballot Measures Up for Consideration in 24'