About the Alaska Senate race

There’s a lot of brouhaha surrounding the candidate Dan J. Sullivan. There are a couple of facts that need to be upfront in any rational discussion:

1. Even if the Democrats recruited Dan J. Sullivan because his name is similar to the incumbent Republican Senator, that’s not illegal.

2. The word “incumbent” appears on the ballot next to Dan S. Sullivan’s name, so there’s no reason to be uncertain which Dan Sullivant is which.

3. Alaska has ranked choice voting. Anyone who is genuinely confused can rank one Sullivan as their first choice and the other as their second choice. If none of the candidates gets more than 50% of the vote, the weakest candidate is eliminated and the second-choice votes on those ballots are redistributed to the remaining candidates. The process continues until someone has a majority. I’ll bet most Republicans know which Sullivan to rank first, so the few who are confused and illiterate but want the incumbent to win can just rank the Sullivans 1 and 2, and if the Republicans are in the majority, Dan S. Sullivan will win.

Alaska didn’t invent ballot stacking in 2026. It’s been going on for decades. Both parties do it. Ranked choice can defeat ballot stacking in a way that first-past-the-post can’t.