Talk:2022 Alaska Senate election

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Verifiable results[edit]

@JenningsTheCrow:, the numbers you've placed in this article for the quantitative results of the races often don't match the reference you used. What happened here? -- Mikeblas (talk) 00:58, 9 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Late results in some districts, I haven't had the time yet to go through and update. (Same problem w/ AK house) JenningsTheCrow (talk) 20:36, 9 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

First Choice vs Round 1[edit]

@JenningsTheCrow The Alaska Division of Elections (AK DoE) considers the tabulation of first choice votes to be a separate process before the first round of ranked choice voting. For example, compare the

First choice results for Senate District N: https://www.elections.alaska.gov/results/22GENR/ElectionSummaryReportRPT.pdf and
Round 1 of RCV: https://www.elections.alaska.gov/results/22GENR/N.pdf

and notice that the numbers are not identical. This is because write-in candidates are eliminated before round 1 of the RCV tabulation. The AK DoE FAQ touches on this under "What about write-in candidates?" at https://www.elections.alaska.gov/RCV.php. Confusingly, this means ballots with a write-in candidate ranked first may have votes transferred before the first round of RCV.

As a consequence, the numbers currently listed under "Round 1" in the results tables are actually the first choice results, while what the numbers present in the official sources as "Round 1" are absent. I propose the following change to the format:

Current Table

General election
Party		Candidate	Round 1			Round 2
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Transfer	Votes	%
	Republican	David Wilson (incumbent)	5,133	44.5	+991	6,124	58.7
	Republican	Steven Wright	3,347	29.0	+964	4,311	41.3
	Republican	Scott Clayton	2,923	25.3	-2,923	Eliminated
	Write-in		141	1.2	-141	Eliminated
Total votes			11,544	100.0	-1,193	10,435	100.0
Inactive ballots						1,193
	Republican hold

Proposed Table

General election
Party		Candidate	First Choice			Round 1			Round 2
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Transfer	Votes	%	Transfer	Votes	%
	Republican	David Wilson (incumbent)	5,133	44.5	+47	5,170	44.8	+954	6,124	58.7
	Republican	Steven Wright	3,347	29.0	+38	3,385	29.3	+926	4,311	41.3
	Republican	Scott Clayton	2,923	25.3	+44	2,977	25.8	-2,977	Eliminated
	Write-in		141	1.2	-141	Eliminated
Inactive ballots			0 ballots			12 ballots			1,109 ballots
	Republican hold

Note that the number of inactive ballots (1,193) in the current version appears to be a typo, so that change is unrelated to my proposal to change the format.

Note also that the AK DoE doesn't directly report the number of ballots transferred from write-ins to each candidate, and they also don't report "Inactive Ballots" the same way we do, however our numbers can be found through simple addition and subtraction, so I think they are acceptable under Wikipedia:CALC.

I removed the total row because I was mimicking the table in 2021 New York City mayoral election, but I have no strong feelings on it. And of course, these changes (if accepted) would need to be applied to all the RCV results on this page. 71.162.7.170 (talk) 17:24, 10 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I think differentiating between First Choice and Round 1 could be very beneficial, especially under a scenario where write-in votes transfer and determine a winner before round 1 (although I don't think that happened this election). I think the total votes row needs to stay. JenningsTheCrow (talk) 00:51, 11 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@JenningsTheCrow: See Talk:2022 United States House of Representatives election in Alaska#Total votes tallly, this is a problem for all 2022 elections in Alaska. We should probably have a centralised discussion there since nobody else views this talk page. —twotwofourtysix^{(talk || edits)} 01:29, 11 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Candidate counts[edit]

There are some errors with the candidate counts in the table in the Overview section. I haven't gone through them all, but the numbers add up to 48 while the total is listed as 49. Additionally, the number of candidates in the general election should certainly be less than the number in the primaries, as there were some withdrawals. I'll try to remember to get back to it after updating the RCV results, but feel free to tackle it if anybody would like to. 71.162.7.170 (talk) 10:53, 6 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This is fixed. 71.162.7.170 (talk) 22:22, 10 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]