What happens when you change the rules of democracy? Alaska found out, and filmmaker AJ Schnack documented every step of it.
On October 9, 2024, FairVote hosted a special webinar featuring Schnack alongside Alaska Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel, RepresentWomen founder and Executive Director Cynthia Richie Terrell, and FairVote CEO Meredith Sumpter to discuss Majority Rules, Schnack's new documentary on Alaska's landmark election reforms.
The film tells the story of how Alaska's adoption of open primaries and ranked choice voting has fundamentally reshaped how campaigns are run, how voters engage, and who ultimately gets elected. Instead of catering to partisan bases, candidates must now build broader coalitions — knocking on doors across party lines and making the case to voters who might rank them second or third rather than first.
Senator Giessel spoke from direct experience. Running under Alaska's new system, she described the shift in how she campaigned — reaching beyond her traditional base, listening to a wider range of constituents, and ultimately winning with the support of voters who had backed other candidates first. It's a model, she argued, that rewards civility and genuine community engagement over partisan combat.
Cynthia Richie Terrell brought the national picture into focus, sharing RepresentWomen's data showing that ranked choice voting jurisdictions consistently see higher levels of women's representation. When the rules reward coalition-building over attack politics, and when voters can rank their true preferences without fear of wasting their vote, more women — and more diverse candidates overall — are able to compete and win.
As Schnack noted, these reforms give voters the freedom to "vote their values" — a simple but profound shift that has the potential to restore trust in democracy at a moment when that trust is urgently needed.
