Although America considers herself the leading democracy, its electoral system is one of the least representative and most primitive to be found in democracies around the world. Alaska now has four recognized parties and there may be more. Alaska s election laws are still built around the two-party system. Candidates are increasingly likely to be elected by smaller and smaller pluralities.
Runoff elections have serious weaknesses and are extremely expensive.
Preferential voting is one effective method that gives voters the power to vote for all candidates in order of preference, insuring that a majority of voters will have some say in the outcome of the election. The Green Party of Alaska proposed a preferential ballot system to the House State Affairs Committee on September 30,1991, where definite interest was expressed. For example if four candidates run for one office, the voter indicates their first, second, third and fourth choices, If no candidate receives a majority, the candidate receiving the fewest first choice votes is eliminated. Those who voted for that eliminated candidate have their votes distributed to their second choice. The process of eliminating lowest placed candidates and redistributing those votes to the next choice continues until one candidate has a majority of the votes cast.