Incumbent Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) took the lead in first-place votes on Friday (November 18), using the opportunity to troll her opponent, fellow Republican Kelly Tshibaka.
The jab came was a GIF posted to Murkowski’s campaign Twitter account. The GIF, a snippet from “The Usual Suspects,” includes the “and just like that” one-liner from the film.
Using a typical meme format, the GIF is overlayed with text that reads: “Kelly’s claim that she only lost because of Ranked Choice was gone.”
To determine its Congressional Contest, Alaska uses a ranked voting system. In this system, voters must rank their choices from first to last. To win, a candidate must obtain the majority of first-place votes. However, if that doesn’t occur subsequent rounds are needed to determine the winner.
With 98 percent of the vote tallied by Friday night, no candidate is expected to win a majority of first-place votes, although Murkowski has led Tshibaka since Election Day.
If there isn’t a winner in the first round, the candidate with the fewest first-place votes is eliminated. The eliminated candidates’ votes are redistributed among the remaining candidates according to their voter’s second choice.
This will likely occur with Republican Buzz Kelley, as he only managed to receive 3 percent of first-place votes.
In the second round, when the process is repeated, Democrat Pat Chesbro is likely to be eliminated, as the Democrat only won 10 percent of the vote.
The candidate who receives most of Chesbro’s vote will win, giving Murkowski the upper hand as she has a more moderate stance.
