Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, the leading candidate for governor, just barely crested the important 50% mark in the latest election results the Alaska Division of Elections released Thursday.
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His nearest challenger, Republican business owner Bernadette Wilson, has 28.7%.
The results Thursday added 5,723 early, absentee and questioned ballots to the total, primarily from Southeast. The Associated Press estimates that only 12% remain to be counted. Ballots sent from overseas have until Nov. 18, which is also when the last ballots will be counted.
If Kreiss-Tomkins still has more than half the vote by then, he’ll win the four-way race, without a tabulation of ranked choices. It would also weaken an argument — in circulation since Democrat Tom Begich dropped out in August — that a Kreiss-Tomkins victory was only possible because the other three candidates on the ballot are Republicans, splitting the conservative vote.
The Associated Press has yet to call a winner.
In the U.S. Senate race, Democrat Mary Peltola pulled further ahead of Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan on Thursday. She now has 49% of the vote, compared to 46.8% for Sen. Sullivan. Even if she does not reach the 50% mark, she’s currently past another important threshold: Her lead of 5,800 votes is greater than the number of votes for Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.
The Trump administration in October sued to preemptively block “any election result that may be impacted by voter confusion.” It said that threshold would be met if Sen. Sullivan lost to Peltola by less than the votes that went to the other Sullivan. A District Court judge dismissed the case but the Trump administration is appealing. If Peltola’s lead over the senator remains above the other Sullivan’s vote total, it would seem to render the appeal moot.
Republican Congressman Nick Begich continues to lead in the U.S. House race and Ballot Measure 2, which would repeal Alaska’s voting system, slipped further behind in the latest results. “No” leads with 53% of the vote.
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