Alaska RCV initiative, President Trump's cabinet, and Utah's Supreme Court
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Here are the top stories from the week of January 5 to January 9.
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Alaska voters to consider top-four ranked-choice voting repeal initiative in 2026 after narrowest defeat in state history in 2024
Alaska voters will decide on a ballot initiative to repeal the state's top-four ranked-choice voting (RCV) system in 2026, unless the Alaska Legislature approves substantially similar legislation during its upcoming session.
This would be the second time that voters have considered an initiative to repeal the state's top-four RCV system. Voters first adopted the system in 2020, when they approved Measure 2, 50.55% to 49.45%.
In 2024, voters defeated an initiative to repeal RCV, 49.9% to 50.1%. That's the narrowest ballot measure result in Alaska's history.
The latest initiative would eliminate the state's system, which combines top-four primaries with RCV in general elections.
Currently, eight states, including Alaska, have laws authorizing or requiring the use of RCV for certain elections, while 17 states have laws prohibiting or restricting its use. Maine is the only state besides Alaska to use RCV in regular statewide elections. Hawaii also uses RCV in special federal elections. Fourteen states contain localities that either use or are scheduled to begin using RCV in municipal elections.
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Trump ends 2025 with no Cabinet turnover
President Donald Trump (R) completed the first calendar year of his second term in office, and no members of his 22-person Cabinet have left or changed positions so far.
The Cabinet is a group of senior federal officials who advise the president on the issues and activities of their respective agencies. Because the number of Cabinet members can vary across presidential administrations, today we are comparing turnover among the 15 agency heads who are part of the presidential line of succession.
Two of these 15 agency heads left or changed positions in the first calendar year of Trump's first term. This was the most turnover among these positions of any president's first-term or only term since Ronald Reagan’s (R).
John F. Kelly, Secretary of Homeland Security – Trump promoted Kelly to replace Reince Priebus as White House chief of staff on July 28, 2017. (Note: While the chief of staff has had Cabinet-rank status in both of Trump’s terms, the position is not in the line of succession.)
Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services – resigned on September 29, 2017
During Trump's second term, the following offices are also Cabinet-rank positions: White House chief of staff, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. trade representative, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the director of National Intelligence, the administrator of the Small Business Administration, and the ambassador to the United Nations. These positions were also Cabinet-level in Trump's first term.
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Utah Gov. Spencer Cox's proposal could be first expansion of a state's supreme court since 2016
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox's (R) recent budget proposal includes nearly $3 million allocated to add two justices to the state's Supreme Court and two judges to its Court of Appeals. Currently, the Supreme Court has five justices, and the Court of Appeals has seven.
Deseret News’ Brigham Tomco wrote that “the proposal coincides with an increase in workload for Utah’s highest courts, and intends to speed up decisions, according to legislative leadership. It also comes amid Republican frustration over recent rulings that have stalled legislation and scrapped legal precedent.”
Utah is one of 16 states that have a five-member supreme court. Additionally, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals — one of the state’s two courts of last resort — also has five justices.
Twenty-eight state supreme courts have seven justices — the most common number of justices for a state supreme court. Seven state supreme courts have nine justices. Additionally, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals — one of the state’s two courts of last resort — also has nine justices.
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