Mary Peltola led Senator Dan S. Sullivan 48.2% to 47.9% on first choices with 74.3% of the expected vote counted, NBC reported on Wednesday evening1. Neither is near 50%, so the seat goes to Alaska's ranked-choice count. Voters rank the candidates; the last-placed are eliminated in turn and their ballots pass to each voter's next choice until one candidate holds a majority.
The result can turn on the 3.9% of first choices cast so far for other candidates. One of them is Dan J. Sullivan, a retired Petersburg teacher who shares the senator's name. Alaska's elections officials tried to strike him from the ballot in June before the Alaska Supreme Court reinstated him for the primary.
The Alaska Division of Elections will publish updated counts on 10, 13 and 18 November, spokesperson Steve Kirch told Alaska Public Media2. It runs the official ranked-choice tabulation only on Wednesday 18 November, the deadline for the last absentee ballots, and plans to certify, or declare the official result, by 25 November.
US District Judge Sharon Gleason on Sunday 1 November dismissed the Department of Justice (DOJ) suit that sought to stop the state certifying any winner other than Senator Sullivan, calling the relief "infeasible" because ballots were already cast and mixed3. The department said it would appeal. Senator Sullivan told CNN: "I'm going to accept the election results."4
