Slow Reveal
Notice, Wonder, Connect
This graphic shows how the ranked choice voting tabulation process worked in the November 2022 Alaska race for US House of Representatives. In the House election, Mary Peltola (Democrat) started off with the most votes, but she had fewer votes than the two Republicans (Nick Begich and Sarah Palin) put together. However, enough of Nick Begich’s voters wanted Mary Peltola over Sarah Palin, that when he was eliminated, Peltola won. Meanwhile, the Senate saw a different situation. Lisa Murkowski and Kelly Tshibaka are both Republicans and far and away had more votes than the Democrat (or the third Republican). Neither had over 50% though. After two rounds of elimination, Lisa Murkowski won. In both of these races, the candidate who had the most votes in the first round ended up winning. The difference is that in the House race, the Republican candidates combined had more votes, but enough wanted the Democrat over the other Republican, that it changed the outcome. Meanwhile in the Senate, the Democrat had many fewer votes but when she was eliminated her votes decided which of the Republican candidates would win. In both these scenarios, ranked choice voting provided more opportunity for voters to express their preference for candidates.
Beginning in the summer of 2022, Alaska switched to a ranked choice voting system. In ranked choice voting, voters rank candidates. There are multiple types of ranked choice voting, but Alaska uses instant-runoff voting. In round one of the counting, each candidate starts with however many voters ranked them #1. If no candidate has received more than 50% of the vote, then the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and all their votes are distributed to each voter’s second pick. This process is repeated until one candidate has over 50% of the vote. In some cases, there is no elimination process because one candidate wins in the first round. In November, 2022, for instance, Dunleavy received over 50% of the round one votes in the Alaska governor’s race so he immediately won. However, the statewide races for U.S. Senate and House both required two rounds of elimination to reach a candidate.
There are many decisions made when designing a voting system. For example, Alaska starts with a primary. In that primary, voters only select one candidate. The top four candidates advance to the general election where instant-runoff voting occurs. All of these decisions impact the outcome of the election. Instant-runoff voting encourages a candidate to have broad appeal even if their supporters are not very enthusiastic about them. A candidate needs to get at least 50% of people to have voted for them, but they could have been a voter’s second or third choice. Meanwhile in a first-past-the-post system like most of the United States uses, a candidate needs to have the most supporters who feel strongly enough about them to pick them over everyone else even if that is still a minority of the voters in the area. Alaska tries to balance these tradeoffs by having the four general election candidates be picked by first-past-the-post and the winner be selected by ranked choice.
Additional Resources:
Visualization Type: Sankey Diagram
Data Source: Alaska Division of Elections
Visualization Source: Craig Fox using SankeyMatic
This graphic can be replicated with different data with some effort and minimal technical skill. Election data must be retrieved from Alaska’s Division of Elections and manually entered into SankeyMatic. The text entered to create these visualizations can be found below
Notice: key, political parties, thin/thick lines,
Wonder: What does ‘exhausted’ mean on the top right?
Connect: I connect this to the abundance of the voting signs around Juneau.
Catchy Title: Painting the Voting Picture
I noticed Mary Peltolas was better than the others
I noticed that there was a very very small yellow line in it
I wonder who the yellow line was and I wonder why Nick Begich had two lines.
I wonder why Mary Peltola did so well
I connect this to when My mom went to vote
also btw I wasn’t here when we did this
I notice that there was blue and red
I wonder how often they update this chart
I connect becaue my parents vote
I notice that Mary Peltola’s line is blue but the other two are red.
I wonder why the graph only uses primary colors and greys.
I can connect this to when we watched the Mary Peltola video in class.
A good title for this would be Election Voting in Alaska.
Hi, Zara. I like your title. The colors were picked to correspond to the candidates’ political parties. So Mary Peltola is blue since she is a Democrat. Begich and Palin are both Republicans so they are red. The greys were picked to show that those are not going to any candidate.
I notice red,yellow,blue,gray,dark gray,black,lines,and numbers.
I wonder why we have to do this graph about voting.
This graph connects to me by how there graphs in Juneau and stuff.
My catchy title is Graph of voting
i Notice colors
i wonder why they picked those colors
i have a connection to nick because im also a guy
Title: colorful rank choice voting
I wonder why you chose these colors?, why this style of graph?, and why rank choice voting?.
I connect to this because I’m an Alaskan, my family votes, and one is a woman.
My catchy title is “The votes of Alaskans”
i noticed that there was a color key and my title was “Voting for Alaska 2021”
-I noticed that there were more republicans running
-I wonder why more republicans are running in Alaska
-I connect because my parents vote
Catchy title: “Rank choice voting 2022, in color”
Yes there definitely tend to be more Republicans running. This is likely because Alaska has a lot more Republicans (144542, 23.99%) compared to Democrats (77137, 12.80%). However the largest group is Unaffiliated (349661, 58.04%) meaning they are not associated with any party. This is Alaska’s first year using Ranked Choice Voting, so the number of candidates from each party might change.
Notice: Blue, Red
Wonder: why
Connect: Political stuff
Catchy Title: Political stuff
I noticed on the graph that there were different colors, and different shades of the colors. Then I noticed that there were thicker lines and that there was a color key. I wondered why some of the lines were thicker than the others, then figured out why. I connect to this graph because I have heard of Mary Peltola on the radio and tv. My catchy title was Voting for People in Alaska.
I noticed that the yellow line branches off in many directions.
I wonder if the ads people posted changed the voters minds in the second round.
I connect to this because I watched Mary get selected
My catchy title is, “Voting for Alaska’s house representative”
– I notice that there is another political party in addition to democrat and republican.
– I wonder what party that is, and how it compares to the democratic and republican parties.
– I can connect this to the real world because one of the candidates children went to this school last year.
these to elections could have been different cuz they might have gone diffidently having more votes go to active Candide
i say it shud be political stuff
This connects to my family because my mom works for the city.
Alaska color voting graph.
I wondered why some of their scores went up and why some went down.
I notice the rounds.
The elections could have been much faster without Ranked Choice Voting and someone else could have one, or maybe not.
I think the votings could’ve gone different because people could vote diffewrently depending on the way the elections is set up.
I notice the color key, and most of what is up there is words and color.
I wonder why did they choose the title that they did.
Title that I came up with the ways of voting
how might these two elections have gone differently if there hadn’t been rank choice voting. if you hadn’t done rank choice voting people would only have one vote and people would not have voted for there second and third.
rank choice voting
I wonder than too Aurelia. It is impossible to know for sure how people would have voted if the old system was still in place. Would more people who voted for Nick Begich in the first round have just voted for Sarah Palin instead (since they would not be able to pick a second option)? Or would they stick with Nick Begich and still split the vote
Ranking the Parties
i notice the number of votes
i wonder what they have counting the votes. like a machine or just one or a few people counting them all at once like the old days.
i connect because people i know voted like my parents or their friends.
I notice:
red, blue, black, yellow,
dark grey, light grey, brown,
letters, numbers, key, rectangles,
lines, us general voting, Mary Peltola,
Nick Begich, Sarah Palin,
I notice that the graph has voting rounds and names of the house representatives.
I wonder how the rounds change the voting.
This affects me because this is our representative for Alaska.
2022 Alaska US Representatives graph
I notice that the map is showing something to do with voting.
I wonder what the little yellow lines mean.
Both have to do with alaska.
1.I noticed the Different types of votes.
2.How long does it take to count all the votes?
3.This is how we now vote.
Title:
2022 Alaska Voting graph
Hi Inde! Most of the votes are counted by computers that scan the ballots and tabulate the results instantly. In smaller areas, they are counted by hand. Normally this happens pretty quickly though. The votes are typically written down right after the voting station closes.
these to elections could have been diffrent beacase they might have gone diffidently having more votes go to active Candide
my title was alaska rank voting
I noticed a color key.
I wonder why the yellow rectangle is so small compared to the others.
I connected to the graph because my mom voted for Mary Peltola.
Don’t be a crank and vote with rank.
What i saw where Colors and one of my wonders is what the blanks are and i’m an Alaska resident .
I notice that the red split up.
I wonder why there are so many overvotes.
I can connect this to my family because we voted
my title is the waves of voting
I noticed that alot of people dropped out, I wonder why there were so many exoust votes. I can connect to this because my dad probably voted for Mary Peltola. My catchy title is “The Race to the House of Representatives.”
If I could choose another way to elect leaders, it would be to give them trial runs. It would be down to the last 3 candidates, then I would give them a ‘Trial’ where they can lead the country for maybe a month or two. Of course I can see how that’s not something they’re doing already.
A fun title for this graph is: Alaska’s Amazing Opinion on House Candidates
Katherine, I think that is a very creative way to run an election. Would it be challenging having three different leaders in a few months? What if a candidate wants to make changes that take a long time?
I wonder why some of the strips of lines are thicker than others.
A connection I made is that my family are democrats
A catchy title our group came up with was a race to the house of representatives.
yes
i noticed that the yellow line is very tiny and low voting
– I notice that there are 3 “rounds” where there are different numbers of votes.
– I wonder if they count one of the votes for the overvotes or none of them.
– I connect because I know people that have voted and my parents voted.
A title could be “Rank Choice Voting 2022”
I noticed that mary Peltola did a lot better than the others
I noticed after a little bit of looking at the graph was very well laid out and easy to read. If there hadn’t been ranked choice questing the final results wouldn’t have changed, however it much closer because of the ranked voting. Palins numbers almost doubled because of the 3rd round
I saw a lot of colors and chaos, voting can get chaotic and crazy so. I also wonder whats going on with the voting, with the a lot of numbers and such. i don’t really connect with this tho, sorry. and a cool title would be “voting chaos,” (i tried.)
That is ok Zoey. Not every graph will be intimately related to you. I think Voting Chaos is appropriate. This is the first year for this system in Alaska, so for a lot of people it is confusing.