Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins passed 50% in Alaska's race for governor after Friday's count, while Democrat Mary Peltola widened her lead over Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan but stayed just short of a majority. The Senate race and the contest for Alaska's U.S. House seat now head to a ranked-choice tabulation on Wednesday, Nov. 18. Voters are also rejecting a measure that would have done away with that system.
The Alaska Division of Elections' unofficial results, updated at 7:14 p.m. Alaska time on Friday, Nov. 13, show 279,334 ballots counted, about 46% of registered voters.
| Race | Leader | Runner-up | Leader's share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Governor | Kreiss-Tomkins and Zac Johnson, 139,293 | Bernadette Wilson and Michael Shower (R), 77,110 | 50.81% |
| U.S. Senate | Mary Peltola (D), 138,240 | Dan S. Sullivan (R), 127,828 | 49.84% |
| U.S. House | Nick Begich (R), 132,053 | Bill Hill (nonpartisan), 115,220 | 47.83% |
A day earlier, Peltola had 49.08% and the Kreiss-Tomkins ticket had 50.05%. Both gained as the absentee ballots counted Friday were added.
Kreiss-Tomkins, a registered Democrat, runs with Zac Johnson, a nonpartisan. If their share stays above 50% after the last ballots are counted, no ranked-choice round is needed. The Republican vote is split among three tickets, led by Wilson and Shower at 28.13%, with Dave Bronson's ticket at 13.59% and Treg Taylor's at 7.19%.
Why the Senate race is so close
Peltola leads Sullivan by 10,412 votes. The other two Senate candidates, Republican Gerald Heikes and Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., have 10,445 first-choice votes between them, a few dozen more than the margin. Under Alaska's system, the last-place candidate is dropped and those ballots move to each voter's next choice, round by round, until someone has a majority, so the race now turns on how Heikes and Sullivan Jr. voters ranked the top two and on how many of them ranked no one else.
The House race is looser. Begich leads Hill by 16,833 votes, with Democrat Eric Hafner at 21,187 and Libertarian Jim McDermott at 7,228.
The system that decides those races is also on track to stay. Ballot Measure 2 would have repealed the open top-four primary and the ranked-choice general election and brought back partisan primaries. It is failing, 141,750 no votes to 123,095 yes, or 53.52% to 46.48%.
What happens next
The division's election schedule sets these dates:
- Nov. 18: last day for ballots mailed from overseas to arrive, final count, and ranked-choice tabulation for races where no one has a majority
- Nov. 25: target date to certify the election
- Nov. 28: deadline to ask for a recount in the governor's race
- Nov. 30: deadline to ask for a recount in other races
- Dec. 5: deadline to file an election contest
- Dec. 7: new governor sworn in
All results stay unofficial until certification. Peltola's campaign also lost a court bid this week for records on rejected absentee ballots, which Edit USA covered on Nov. 12.
