The election is over in Alaska, but the final results won’t be known for at least a week.
The state Division of Elections says it will count over 120,000 absentee and early votes starting next Tuesday, November 10. The timing isn’t out of the ordinary for the state — but the volume of ballots is.
In the race for House District 35 between incumbent Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Republican challenger Kenny Karl Skaflestad of Hoonah, there are an estimated 4,283 early and absentee ballots that won’t be counted until November 10. There are an estimated 1,177 ballots that have been sent out by the Division of Elections that haven’t been received yet that could arrive by the deadline of November 13 — ten days from the election. (Overseas ballots can be counted by November 18).
Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman had no opponent on the ballot. He had 95-percent of the votes in Senate District R on election night, and that trend will likely be unchanged by absentee and early ballots.
Division of Elections director Gail Fenumiai told Alaska Public Media that her office will spend much of the week verifying absentee ballots, to ensure that no one cast both an absentee- and in-person ballot.
Fewer voters turned out in person in Sitka for the general election Tuesday than came out for the October municipal election — 774 residents cast ballots in Sitka’s No. 2 precinct by 8 P.M. compared with 891 who cast ballots in October. In Sitka’s No. 1 precinct there was a similar spread. But when the absentee- and early ballots are counted, it could be a record voter turnout for the district.
