Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said Saturday he expects voters to repeal the state’s ranked choice voting system this November, arguing that even he struggles to explain how it works after being elected under both the old and new systems.

“To be honest with you, it’s incredibly complex,” Dunleavy said on Newsmax’s “Saturday Agenda.” “I mean, even I sometimes question what are the methods, what are the outcomes?”

Alaska voters narrowly adopted the top-four primary and ranked choice general election system in 2020.

Under it, all candidates for an office compete in a single primary regardless of party, and the top four vote-getters advance to the general election.

If no candidate wins a majority in November, the last-place finisher is eliminated and their votes are redistributed to the remaining candidates based on voters’ rankings, continuing until someone crosses 50%.

Dunleavy, who is term-limited and not on this year’s ballot, used the 2026 governor’s race as an example.

Seventeen candidates ran in the Aug. 18 primary, with the top four advancing to November.

“You’ll have some people going into the general with 8% of the vote, 8% of the 20% that voted,” he said. “Obviously that’s not reflective of the population in general.”

He said constituents have told him they were overwhelmed trying to research a primary ballot with 17 governor candidates plus numerous legislative and U.S. Senate contenders. “How do we know who to vote for?” he said people ask him. “I think you’re going to see people are going to be not happy” once ranked choice tabulation begins in the general election, he added.

“I’m not a proponent of this new system at all,” Dunleavy said. “I think we have a very good chance of repealing this ranked choice voting and getting back to what people understand: one vote, one person.”

Alaska voters will decide the question again this November after a nearly identical 2024 repeal measure failed by just 737 votes out of more than 320,000 cast — the narrowest margin in state history.

The new measure would also reinstate closed party primaries and roll back campaign finance disclosure requirements.

Opponents, backed largely by out-of-state groups including Unite America, have outraised supporters of repeal by more than 5-to-1 heading into the vote.