Peltola, Kreiss-Tomkins grow leads after latest ballot counts in Alaska
Democrat Mary Peltola and Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins have extended their leads in Alaska's Senate and gubernatorial races, respectively, following the latest ballot counts. Thousands of absentee ballots remain to be processed before the final results are confirmed on November 18.
Why it matters
The outcome of these races in Alaska could shift the political landscape and test the efficacy of the state's ranked-choice voting system.
Democrat Mary Peltola extended her lead over Republican U.S. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan in Alaska’s Senate race after the state Division of Elections tallied an additional 5,000 ballots on Thursday, bringing the total number of ballots counted to over 256,000.
In the governor’s race, Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins had over 50% of first-choice votes after the latest ballot count , ahead of three Republican candidates. Kreiss-Tomkins said Wednesday that he expects that after all ballots are counted, he will have a comfortable majority of votes on his way to becoming the state’s first Democratic governor since 2002.
Thousands of absentee ballots remain to be counted in Alaska, with final ballot counting scheduled to take place Nov. 18.
Many of the ballots counted Thursday came from Juneau and surrounding areas in Southeast Alaska, which favored Peltola and Kreiss-Tomkins in their respective races.
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