Alaskans for Better Elections (ABE)

On January 15, 2020, Alaskans for Better Elections turned in the required signatures in order to place a substantial revision to Alaskan election and campaign procedures to the state ballot. ² The proposal would change party primaries to a “top-four” system, use the ranked-choice voting procedure for general elections, and restrict anonymous election-related speech. ³ The successful campaign cost $7 million. ⁴

Lawsuit

In 2020, Alaskans for Better Elections pushed Ballot Measure 2, a set of new campaign finance rules that included the mandatory disclosure of donors who give more than $2,000 in ads. In April 2022, a group of donors and free speech advocates, including the Liberty Justice Center, the Alaska Free Market Coalition, and Families of the Last Frontier, sued the state on the grounds that the new rules were unconstitutional. ABE announced that it would intervene in the case in defense of the voter-approved law, claiming that voters “made it clear that they want increased campaign transparency and have a right to know who is spending money on their elections. Nothing in ballot measure two violates the first amendment, nor does it limit political speech.” ⁵

In July 2022, a U.S. District Court judge rejected the lawsuit. ⁶

Funding

Alaskans for Better Elections has been accused of being financed by “dark money” from Democratic-aligned groups, including Unite America. ⁷

Data from Opensecrets show that as of May 2023, Alaskans for Better Elections received $300,000 to Unite America, a PAC based in Denver that supports electoral reform efforts to the benefit of left-wing candidates. During the 2020 election cycle, Unite America gave almost $2.9 million to ABE, with an additional $500,000 from the Unite America Reform Fund. ⁸