Electoral reform

Electoral reform

Electoral reform is change in electoral systems to improve how public desires are expressed in election results. That can include reforms of:...

 in Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

refers to efforts to change the voting laws in this U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

.
U.S. Senator John McCain

John McCain

John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....

 and other Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

s endorsed a referendum

Referendum

A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...

 to implement Instant Runoff Voting, after the conservative vote split between the Republican candidate and the Alaskan Independence Party

Alaskan Independence Party

The Alaskan Independence Party is a political party in the U.S. state of Alaska that advocates an in-state referendum which includes the option of Alaska becoming an independent country...

 candidate, allowing a Democrat

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 to win the governorship. However, the League of Women Voters

League of Women Voters

The League of Women Voters is an American political organization founded in 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt during the last meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association approximately six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote...

 opposed it, citing the principle of one man, one vote, and the measure was defeated. Another issue is whether Alaska will join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact

National Popular Vote Interstate Compact

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is an agreement among U.S. states designed to replace current state rules governing the electoral college system of presidential elections with rules guaranteeing election of the national popular vote winner...

and designate its three electors to the candidate winning the nationwide popular vote, rather than the winner of the state's vote. SB 138, a bill to do just that, was introduced in 2007, but was not approved..