Voting should be simple and straightforward

They sure are trying to make ranked choice voting sound good, like choosing iced tea flavors.

But what if I know that my favorite candidate probably doesn’t have enough support to win? Should I put him as my second choice instead, so that it’s more likely my second-favorite candidate will get 50 percent support in the first round? What if there’s another front-runner that has a chance of getting 50 percent, but I don’t like his policies? If I vote strategically, I may be able to get my second-choice candidate into office when my first choice doesn’t have a chance.

Why are we asking voters to strategize and predict the future? Alaskans should be able to go to the voting booth, vote for the candidate that they like the best, and be done with it. Voting should be simple and straightforward, not the convoluted process that is ranked choice voting.

I think that is what our founding fathers would have preferred! I come from a long line of service members! They would have wanted people to have a clear choice, and I do too.

Eleilia Preston,

Wasilla