Peltola’s narrow lead over Sullivan grows as Alaska’s delayed ballot count keeps the race unsettled
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Democrat Mary Peltola is ahead of Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan by about 4,250 first-choice votes after the latest results, while tens of thousands of ballots remain and the final count is expected after November 18.
Democrat Mary Peltola increased her margin over Republican U.S. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan in Alaska’s Senate race after the state Division of Elections released a new batch of preliminary results on Tuesday, adding more uncertainty to a contest that remains far from resolved. The updated count, which now exceeds 245,000 ballots, shows Peltola with 118,926 first-choice votes (49%) and Sullivan with 114,676 votes (47.2%), a lead of 4,250 votes, up 1,700 from the previous update. Tens of thousands of early and absentee ballots remain to be counted, and the final outcome may not be known until the last ballots are processed on November 18, with certification expected on November 25.
The race also includes Republican perennial candidate Gerald Heikes, who has 5,318 first-choice votes (2.2%), and Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher, with 4,027 votes (1.7%). Under Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, if no candidate reaches a majority, the lowest-finishing candidates will be eliminated and their votes redistributed according to voters’ subsequent preferences, a mechanism that can complicate the will of the voters and make the final outcome even more opaque.
Both campaigns have issued statements outlining their strategies for securing the remaining votes, citing the latest vote-record data from the Alaska Division of Elections as they press for every possible ballot in a race that could still turn on the remaining count.