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With votes still being counted in Alaska, voters are leaning toward defeating a ballot measure that would scrap the state’s unique election system, which Republicans argue has complicated Sen. Dan Sullivan’s re-election bid against Democratic former Rep. Mary Peltola.
Alaska is the only state in the nation to have a “top four” primary system in which candidates advance regardless of party affiliation. And it’s one of only two states, along with Maine, to use ranked choice voting for statewide and federal races.
With ranked-choice voting, voters rank candidates by preference, and if nobody receives a majority of first-choice votes, additional counting rounds occur until someone reaches a majority. The lowest-performing candidate is eliminated, and ballots cast for that candidate are reassigned to each voter’s next-ranked remaining candidate. The process continues until a candidate has a majority.
Proposition 2, a ballot measure primarily supported by Republicans which would repeal the current voting system that’s been in use in Alaska since 2022, may go down to defeat.
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Alaska voters head to a polling location during the election. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)
The proposition, if passed, would restore single-choice elections, replace the open primary with partisan primaries, and would repeal certain campaign-finance disclosure rules.
But with ballots in Alaska still being counted as of early Thursday morning, with about 73% of the estimated votes counted, “no” led 51.9% to 48.1%.
A “no” vote would preserve Alaska’s open top-four primary, ranked-choice general election and the campaign-finance disclosure provisions at issue.
Republicans argue the system has made life difficult for Sullivan, who shares the ballot with Peltola as well as long-shot candidates Gerald Heikes, a Republican, and Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher who is not related to the senator.
Republicans call the second Sullivan, a registered Republican who switched to undeclared, “Decoy Dan” and accuse Democrats of recruiting him to run to confuse voters and hurt the senator’s chances of winning re-election.
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President Donald Trump shakes hands with Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, during a campaign rally at Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Wasilla, Alaska, on Oct. 13, 2026. (Kent NISHIMURA / AFP via Getty Images)
Those accusations were boosted in recent days by a New York Times report, but the Peltola campaign and national Democrats deny any link to the second Sullivan.
The Justice Department is investigating whether Daniel J. Sullivan was recruited as a spoiler candidate. And term-limited Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy of Alaska a week ago also ordered an investigation and suggested the state could withhold certification of the Senate election if Peltola won.
Following the state’s primary, the Alaska Division of Elections disqualified the second Dan Sullivan from the ballot, but the decision was overturned first by an Alaska Superior Court judge and later by the state Supreme Court.
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Former Rep. Mary Peltola launches her campaign as a Democratic candidate for Senate in Anchorage, Alaska, on Jan. 17, 2026. (Reuters)
Meanwhile, Heikes advanced to the general election when the fourth-place primary finisher, Democrat David Leslie, withdrew from the race.
Defenders of Alaska’s electoral system say it gives independent voters more choices, weakens party control and encourages candidates to appeal beyond their base.
“Alaska’s election system celebrates our independence, giving us the freedom to vote for the person who is best for the job,” Alaskans for Better Elections highlights on its website.
POLLSTERS MISSED THE MARK, BUT THIS TIME IT WASN’T REPUBLICANS THEY UNDERCOUNTED
Dan J. Sullivan, who has filed to run for U.S. Senate in Alaska, poses for a photo in Petersburg, Alaska, June 26, 2026. (Katie Holmlund/Associated Press)
But Alaska GOP Chair Carmela Warfield repeatedly referred to the state’s electoral system as a “MESS” in social media posts.
Veteran GOP strategist Mary Marslender told Fox News Digital recently that the current system is “hurting the Republican Party.”
Marslender claimed that the current system has “become an easy way for the Democrats to game the system.”
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Pointing to Daniel J. Sullivan’s inclusion on the general election ballot, she said, “That never would have been allowed in the previous old system. … But because there’s an open primary, he was allowed to be on the ballot.
“Republican primary voters under the old system wouldn’t have voted for him, and he wouldn’t have been in there.”