Alaskans will vote on a ranked-choice voting system this November

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Why can't they just use IRV for the first round to get a winner right away?

That's what we do in Minneapolis municipal elections. It's widely supported because it saves money requiring only one round of voting instead of two, but you can only rank three out of a ton of candidates. Less of an issue here since most are jokes as are all Republican candidates anyway, but in a statewide election that's more of an issue. I presume that's the reasoning at least.