Scott A. Kohlhaas, the Alaskan Independence Party, Robert M. Bird, and Kenneth P. Jacobus v. State of Alaska…

Summary

The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed summary judgment rejecting facial constitutional challenges to Initiative 2, which replaced partisan primaries with an open top-four primary and adopted ranked-choice voting. The court held that the initiative minimally burdened political parties’ associational rights, complied with constitutional requirements governing the lieutenant governor and governor elections, and imposed no unconstitutional burden on the right to vote. The court applied de novo review and held that the challengers failed to overcome the presumption of constitutionality or show that the election system lacked a plainly legitimate sweep.