Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer, who is overseeing Alaska’s elections, released the schedule for counting roughly 150,000 absentee, questioned and early vote ballots.

The count begins this morning, Nov. 10, in three locations. Updates will be released twice a day for as long as the count takes.

The Division of Elections holding counts in Anchorage, Mat-Su, Fairbanks and Juneau. This includes votes cast for the president, U.S. Senate and House and State House and Senate races, some of which are razor close.

The vote count for ballots cast in the interior part of the state (Region IV) will not begin Nov. 10, as the Division of Elections is still waiting to receive all of voter registries, which indicate who has already voted in person. The voter registries, which are filled out on election day at the polling places, allows the state to compare the list the names of those who voted in person to those who voted absentee. If there are duplicates, the absentee ballot will be discarded so that no one votes twice. A spokesperson from the Division of Elections said they expect to start counting Region IV later this week.

“It is the mission of my office and the Division of Elections to ensure public confidence in the electoral process by administering elections with the highest level of professional standards, integrity, security, accuracy, and fairness,” Meyer said. “With a record amount of absentee ballots issued, and an outstanding amount of early voter turnout, we are taking very seriously our role in tabulating all ballots.”

According to state law, Alaska has until Nov. 18 to finish counting ballots.

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