Alaska Senate race stays tight as Peltola leads, results pending
The Alaska Division of Elections said on November 10 that it would issue additional results noting that Democrat Mary Peltola held a narrow lead over Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan. Earlier that day, the Anchorage Daily News reported that Peltola’s advantage had grown to roughly 2,500 first-choice votes. Initial counts had shown Peltola ahead of Sullivan, with the final outcome to be decided after the state’s ranked-choice redistribution, a process expected to take weeks (Anchorage Daily News; CBS News; USA Today; Al Jazeera; New York Times). An independent review of the ranked-choice data suggested Peltola was likely to secure a majority (Democracy Docket).
State officials said the race was within a few hundred votes and that absentee ballots arriving on Nov. 13 and Nov. 15 could determine the final lead (NewsNation). President Donald Trump publicly declared that Sullivan had won, despite the official tallies showing Peltola in front (New York Post; The Daily Beast).