An Interview with Art Mathias of Alaskan for Honest Elections

The RNHA interviewed Art Mathias from Alaskans for Honest Elections and he breaks down the dangers of rank-choice voting. 

What got you interested in politics?

In 1990, I ran the Christian Coalition of Alaskans, and I am interested in politics because I care about our country. I got back into it because of rank-choice voting. I saw it as a Marxist scheme to destroy our country and redefine our elections and our government. Rank Choice voting can rig an election. We have a republic that the Marxists, communists, and fascists want to destroy. Those three groups are synonymous and they want to dictate to us. We have to stand up and fight and be bold, to tell the truth. We have to be involved in politics because it is our duty as citizens. Alaskans for honest elections, government, and rank choice education association. They are the different avenues for why people are trying to destroy our country.

How is Rank Choice Voting Affecting Alaskan Elections?

Rank Choice voting is a method by which votes are counted. In the Alaska version, you vote for your top 4 candidates even if you do not like them. If only vote for 1 candidate then your vote is exhausted or thrown out. In some elections over 20% of all votes are disqualified for overvoting or not voting or mistakes on the ballot. The third-place candidate usually wins. It discriminated against those for whom English is their second language because the voting process is so complicated. Minority communities have the highest rate of exhausted ballots and the lowest voter turnout. In our November election, the turn was a historic low—down 20% in every demographic.

It creates a jungle primary an open primary, wipes out the primaries, and removes all political parts. In Alaska, there were no 3rd party candidates. They lost all their representation. It all comes down to a popularity contest and the person who received only 10% is the person who won the election—the house seat. There was very little meaningful debate. The ads were all about how many guns she had or how many fish she caught. As a result of rank choice voting Mary Saddler( Mary Pelota) the most radical candidate ever won. 

Soros-funded companies are using dark money from outside Alaska. They spent 8 million dollars to redefine how we vote. This is just an investment for them, that paid off very well. With Mary in office 18 million acres in Alaska went to a carbon tax deal, and they all got rich.

What is Dark Money

Dark money- is defined as money coming from some organization that is not Alaskan. Dark money is Soros-funded and used as an experiment on Alaska since the population is only 700,000. The Rank Choice Resource Center, United America Colorado, the Arnold Venture Fund, and other Soros types lied to us about how they marketed rank choice voting. These organizations said we will stop the dark money which was a lie because they are the dark money. Rank Choice advocates say that their opponents are advocating for a closed Primary. 

Does Rank Choice Voting Rig Elections?

YES! Rank Choice creates a jungle primary that raised unknown individuals during the last election. The rank-choice voting system is confusing and leads to lower voter turnout in the last election. During the last election voter turnout in Alaska was 20%. People became frustrated with the algorithms which led to a systematic reduction of 100 k and 6% of the total vote was disqualified.  If you did not vote for the second or third choice your vote was thrown away. Approximately 83k or 50% of the final vote was thrown away. It creates a false 50% to win because it throws out votes in every round of counting thus reducing the total vote turnout number. So a person with 40-45% of the total vote in the first round wins Not really 50%. you

What is a Conservative Solution to the Issue of Run-off Elections?

Rank choice voting is not cost-effective. It does not cost less than the plurality of having the top two candidates run off. In Alaska, the Department of Elections spent 3.1 million dollars more because of Rank Choice Voting. In a plurality election, there is no runoff since there is no 50% standard. 

The other option top is to have the top two run off and then they win but does not cost us. We get to make a choice. People not showing up to the election is costly to a Republic. In the last election, we had the lowest turnout that we ever had.  28% voter turnout is worse than the cost of a runoff election. 

How Does Rank Choice Voting Affect the Minority Vote?

Minorities in a small party or an ethnic group will be silenced and rank-choice voting changes the election system to a money system. You can’t get enough earned media you need to pay for media in the rank-choice voting system. So, unless you’re rich you have no voice. There were no 3rd party candidates on the ballot last November. 

Why does it matter if a candidate has 50% of the vote if they got the majority?

The 50% plus one claim of rank choice voting is a lie. America has used pluralities and 50% plus 1 in the top 2 runoffs over 230 years successfully. Either one works and costs less. RCV opens a jungle primary to the one with the most money.  Just like you mentioned in California the open primary leads to Fascism. The jungle primarily restricts our constitutional rights of free association and the right to have our own political party and its candidates. It creates a one-party system that is very easy for the wealthy elites to control and then control our government. One person and one vote is the only fair voting.