Center for American Progress

Reforming Elections for a Better Democracy: Alaska as a Case Study
Video

Reforming Elections for a Better Democracy: Alaska as a Case Study

This video about Alaska’s “Final Four” election system brings together Alaskan legislative leaders from across the aisle to discuss how this system works and early results indicating this reform can create a more representative democracy, decrease polarization, and help incentivize consensus building and more bipartisan governing.

This video brings together Alaska’s state Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel (R), state House Minority Leader Calvin Schrage (not affiliated), and state Rep. Genevieve Mina (D) to discuss the state’s “Final Four” election system.

Alaska’s “Final Four” election system consists of a nonpartisan, top-four primary, in which all candidates run on one primary ballot and voters can cast their vote for their preferred candidate in each race, regardless of political party affiliation. The top four candidates then move on to the general election, where voters use ranked choice voting. Early results indicate this reform can create a more representative democracy, decrease polarization, and help incentivize consensus building and more bipartisan governing.

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Author

Rebecca Mears

Director, Democracy

Producers

Hai-Lam Phan

Senior Director, Creative

Olivia Mowry

Video Producer

Toni Pandolfo

Video Producer, Production

Team

Democracy Policy

The Democracy Policy team is advancing an agenda to win structural reforms that strengthen the U.S. system and give everyone an equal voice in the democratic process.

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