Gordon is spot on. I wasn't there or able to vote no, but was totally against it.
As a little historical review, the Alter cup competitors were comprised of winners from the 10 US Sailing Areas. There were 10 boats sailed in a round robin format, and each team sailed all the races.
This is pretty typical or ladder events in US Sailing.

Attendance at each of the areas was pretty good, for the most part. And everyone sailed what they brung. At that time I was sailing a Hobie 18, but we had about 20 boats, both uni and 2-up. However, there were a few areas that had attendance that was not so good.
So, the powers to be decided that needed to be fixed.
I remember cries from certain areas that this was an unfair way to select the Alter Cup teams. “After all,’ they said, “We have more great sailors in our area than do the folks in Iowa.” Ergo, they asserted, we should have more sailors at the Alter Cup than an area that has fewer “hot” sailors.
In disagreement with that theory, an Area Qualifier is meant to select the BEST team from that area, and then meet with the BEST teams from the other nine areas.
Yet, someone came up with the idea of having twenty teams instead of just ten. The ten Area winners were still allowed to come, but the rest were selected by what could be considered the “good old boy” system. I personally was invited and refused – if I wasn’t good enough to win my Qualifier, why should I get another chance to knock off the guy that already beat me?
Now the sailors were only sailing half of the races in a very complex format. Again, complaining this was unfair to the “hot” sailors, it has now evolved to eliminating the bottom half of the teams and only the top half can sail for the championship.
Most of the time it appears that the Area Winners end up in the bottom half.
The point might be taken here that what is the use of going to an Area Qualifer.., all you have to do is buddy up to whomsoever is making the selections.
Perhaps that is the reason the Area Qualifiers have gone down the tubes.