A new wave of election results was published late Tuesday night — adding a significant number of early ballots that were cast ahead of Election Day but after an Oct. 31 deadline. The new tabulations, however, did little to change the outlook in races for the seats representing the Kenai Peninsula in the Alaska Legislature.
Per the State Division of Elections website, Tuesday’s update, which was published just before 10 p.m., should include the remaining early vote ballots that weren’t counted on the night of the election. Those are the ballots voted between Nov. 1 and Nov. 5. Absentee and questioned ballots can still be counted up to 15 days after the general election.
In races where no candidate secured 50% of the vote, the ranked choice tabulation will eliminate the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes and the second-choice votes of the people who selected the eliminated candidate — if they selected any second-choice candidates — will be allocated. That process repeats until a candidate has 50% of the vote. Tabulation is scheduled for Nov. 21, and the election is targeted for certification on Nov. 30. In Tuesday’s update, the local races expected to be decided after ranked choice tabulation, including Senate District D and House District 6, still await that process.
In the House District 6 race, no ballots were added in Tuesday’s update from the count published by the Division on the morning after the election. Incumbent Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, still holds 4,305 votes, 47.69% of the total. She’s outpacing nonpartisan Brent Johnson of Clam Gulch, who has 3,868 votes and 42.85%. Anchor Point Republican Dawson Slaughter took 836 and 9.26% of the vote.
The Division said Wednesday that the count for House District 6 was delayed by a wait for voter history, necessary to “check for duplicate voting before scanning those ballots.” An updated count for the district is expected Wednesday night.
In other districts around the Kenai Peninsula, thousands of additional ballots were counted.
Despite that influx of ballots, most races didn’t change significantly. Incumbent Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, added only 0.06% to his now 47.89% share of the vote in the race for Senate District D, where now 8,906 votes were cast in his name — up from 7,218 counted a week ago. Challenger Rep. Ben Carpenter, R-Nikiski, now holds 7,582 votes and 40.77%. Tina Wegener, a Sterling Democrat, has 2,064 and 11.10%.
For House District 7, incumbent Rep. Justin Ruffridge, R-Soldotna, saw his lead eroded by two-tenths of a percentage point. He still holds 59.15% with 4,870 ballots cast in his favor, solidly fending off challenging Soldotna Republican Ron Gillham’s 39.95% share with 3,289 votes.
Bill Elam’s lead over John Hillyer in the race for House District 8 also widened very slightly; both candidates are Republicans from the Soldotna area. Elam now holds 4,475 votes and 51.56% to Hillyer’s 4,083 and 47.04%.
Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, maintains a commanding lead of 3,727 votes and 76.62% over Seward Libertarian Leighton Radner, who took 1,103 and 22.68%.
Statewide, voters also considered two ballot measures. The first would raise Alaska’s minimum wage and require sick pay for most workers, and the second would repeal ranked choice voting and open primaries.
On Ballot Measure #1, statewide results 158,798 votes cast in favor, 57% of the total share, outpacing those opposed by roughly 40,000 votes. Looking specifically at the Kenai Peninsula, voters weren’t so favorable. There were 14,993 peninsula voters who voted no on the measure, a share of roughly 53.93%. That’s compared to 12,808 who voted yes.
The results for Ballot Measure #2 depict a much closer race, with 50.5% in favor, 142,511 votes, over 139,670 opposed — 49.5%. On the peninsula, voters were more supportive of the measure, with around 62.25% of peninsula votes cast for yes — 17,471 in favor to 10,596 against.
In the race for Alaska’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola — a Democrat — holds only 45.81% of the vote, with nearly 10,000 fewer votes than Republican challenger Nick Begich, who now has 49.11% of the vote. The remaining candidates, John Wayne Howe and Eric Hafner, claim 4.87% of the vote between them.
That margin doesn’t quite resemble that of the race for U.S. President, where president elect and Republican Donald Trump has 55.13% of the vote to Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris’ 40.89%.
On the Kenai Peninsula, Trump received roughly 66.88% of the vote, with 19,522 votes cast in his favor. There were 8,692 peninsula voters who cast their support for Harris, who took roughly 29.78%.
Similarly, looking only at Kenai Peninsula precinct’s results for the U.S. House representative race, Begich was supported by 17,436 to take 60.84%, topping Peltola’s 9,745 and 34.00%.
To view full results by district or by precinct, visit elections.alaska.gov.
This story was edited Wednesday at around 2 p.m. with comment from the Division of Elections about uncounted votes in House District 6. It will be updated again when those results are updated.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
