The Alaska Division of Elections is set to announce its final unofficial vote count Wednesday before tabulating voters’ ranked choices to determine the winners of races where no candidate got a majority of the vote in the first round.
Gavel Alaska will livestream the tabulation process from the Division of Elections in Juneau. The broadcast is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. You can watch the process live at the video above, on KTOO 360TV, or on Gavel Alaska’s YouTube channel.
The final count and the results of tabulation will determine the winners — pending certification — in several key races, including the race for U.S. House and eight legislative contests.
Republican Nick Begich III has already declared victory in the U.S. House race. He leads Congresswoman Mary Peltola, a Democrat, by roughly two percentage points, but is short of the majority necessary to give him a first-round victory. Second choice votes from the 5% of voters who chose minor candidates in the first round are not expected to give Peltola the lead. We’ll find out who those voters chose as their second choice during this evening’s tabulation.
In the tabulation process, if no candidate receives more than 50% of first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Those voters’ second choices are then redistributed to the remaining candidates.
This process continues until one candidate secures a majority of votes or only two candidates remain, at which point the candidate with the most votes wins.
The results will remain unofficial until they’re certified by the Division of Elections. The estimated date for that is Nov. 30.
Here are the eight legislative races that will be decided during tabulation:
- Senate District D, a northern and central Kenai Peninsula race that includes incumbent Sen. Jesse Bjorkman and conservative challenger Ben Carpenter, both Republicans, and Democrat Tina Wegener
- Senate District F on the Anchorage Hillside, where incumbent Republican Sen. James Kaufman faces Democrat Janice Park and Republican Harold Borbridge
- Senate District L in Chugiak-Eagle River, where incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Merrick faces conservative Republican challenger Jared Goecker and Democrat Lee Hammermeister
- House District 6, including Homer and the southern Kenai Peninsula, where incumbent Republican Rep. Sarah Vance faces independent Brent Johnson and Republican Dawson Slaughter
- House District 28, an all-Republican race for open seat in Wasilla that includes Elexie Moore, Steve Menard and Jessica Wright
- House District 36, a wide swath of the Interior stretching from Glennallen to Delta Junction to the Yukon River drainage, where Republican Rebecca Schwanke, Democrat Brandon Putuuqti Kowalski, Republican Pamela Goode and Libertarian James Fields are competing for an open seat
- House District 38, the Lower Kuskokwim, where Democrat Nellie Unangik Jimmie faces incumbent Democratic Rep. CJ McCormick, Veterans Party candidate Willy Keppel and Democrat Victoria Sosa
- House District 40, the North Slope and Northwest Arctic, where Democrats Robyn Niayuq Burke and Saima Ikrik Chase face Republican-turned-independent Rep. Thomas Ikaaq Baker