By AlaskaWatchman.com

Three days after the General Election, Alaskans remain in the dark about whether voters successfully repealed the state’s controversial ranked-choice voting system, and whether Nick Begich has defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola.

According to a Nov. 8 update to the Division of Elections website, the state has counted 247,011 votes on Ballott Measure 2. So far, 50.87% of voters have chosen to repeal ranked-choice voting, while 49.16% voted to keep it. That’s with 99.25% of all political precincts reporting.

But with just 4,171 votes separating the yeas from the nays, the fate of ranked-choice voting remains in doubt.

Similarly, Begich leads Peltola by a margin of 49.46% to 45.43%. He needs to reach 50% plus one to win outright and avoid a ranked-choice runoff.

The three precincts yet to submit voting tallies are located in Districts 36, 38 and 40, all rural and sparsely populated areas of the state. District 38, however, is one of the few areas of Alaska that favored Kamala Harris over Donald Trump. This Yukon-Kuskokwim region is a Democrat stronghold and many of these votes are likely to be in favor of keeping ranked-choice voting in place.

The lack of information from these rural areas spurred State Rep. Jamie Allard (R-Eagle River) to submit a formal records request to the Division of Elections.

While Allard’s request did not specifically mention Ballot Measure 2, she did ask for all information regarding ballot transportation and all communications to precincts that have not reported results.
At the time of Allard’s request, 13 precincts had yet to report their vote tallies. As of Nov. 8, there remain three outstanding.

“While I fully recognize some of the unique aspects of our state in terms of size and geography, there is simply no excuse for the DOE to have yet to fully count our state’s vote and share those results with the public in a transparent manner,” Allard said. “With Election Day behind us, it has become increasingly clear that Alaska’s DOE is still not fully up to the job. Alaskans deserve transparency and expediency in their election results.”

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Reporting delays fuel frustration over fate of Alaska’s ranked-choice vote and other results

Joel Davidson
Joel is Editor-in-Chief of the Alaska Watchman. Joel is an award winning journalist and has been reporting for over 24 years, He is a proud father of 8 children, and lives in Palmer, Alaska.


17 Comments

  • Elizabeth Henry says:

    Something seems fishy to me. For one, I am skeptical that every single Anchorage precinct voted down BM2? I have yet to meet a single person, or know of anyone who wanted to keep RCV. We have family and many friends in Anchorage, they all have family and friends – all of them voted yes, and they also are perplexed. As for interior precincts such as Y-K, I truly question there as well if most voters there like RCV. In general though it should not be taking this long to produce the voting.

  • Friend of Humanity says:

    Dahlstrom has not handled this election well from the start, when she ran as a candidate in the very election she was supposed to be overseeing. Why isn’t Dunleavy stepping in and getting her actions under control? She works under him right? I still think that they both are working for the commies to take over this state.

    • Davesmaxwell says:

      you read my mind exactly!
      tschbaka report! this is where the bodies are buried! dunleavy should be on trial, man up, and be convicted! After that Nancy dalhstrom put through the same process! After that all of our elected officials put through the same process, and convicted! IM DONE WITH THE FRAUD!

  • Steve says:

    Coming from the villages and delayed sure sounds like an easy method to cheat. Why can’t the villages tally their votes the same day that everyone else does?

  • Jim says:

    We all know that if TPTB got the results they wanted, we would not still be waiting.

  • Brad says:

    Elections hve deadlines and, if these remote precincts don’t respond to said deadlines, their votes should be null and void. Period.

  • keepjuneauhonest.blogspot.com says:

    It’s a sad day in Alaska when we can’t even get the Lt. Governor (whom will soon be the Governor!) to allow voters their right.
    Just a few months ago, she had to be shamed into dropping out of the race against Begich & she did so reluctantly. Within minutes of this being let, there were hundreds of signatures. https://chng.it/F6WN7RzrZ5
    Alaskans have to quit tolerating excuses from departments, they’re all getting paychecks from your PFD.

  • Marcella says:

    I agree why are we still waiting! At this point I do not trust this out come ! How do we get fresh eyes on this count , Texas has more people than we do and there count is done on voting day !

    • Friend of Humanity says:

      How do we get fresh eyes on this count? The state controls the elections and the voter rolls. The elections should be run by the People and the voter rolls should be held by, and maintained by the local precincts. For whatever reason, Alaskans got lazy at some point and allowed the state to take over the election processes, including the voter rolls. Alaskans need to take back the elections and tell the state that the People will give them the results after the votes have been tallied and the winners announced.

  • Michael says:

    We know that RCV is defeated. If you look at the State Elections website, there are only two precincts remaining: 38-800 and 40-006. Respectively, 38-800 has 443 registered voters and 40-006 has 155 registered voters. Even if all voted to keep RCV, it is not enough to overcome the 3000-4000 vote in favor of repealing it. Unless I am too simplistic in looking at the pure numbers of registered voters, RCV is gone. Unfortunately, Begich will have to go to a second round, ugh.

    • Penny Johnson says:

      Unfortunately absentee mail-in & question ballots aren’t a complete count according to the Div of Elections. Of course.

  • Ed says:

    This is exactly what the leftist elements wanted: voter confusion; chaos; and a system that’s designed to favor one political party; — AND, to keep them in office without popular support. Most of this has been caused by uninformed and misinformed voters that haven’t the foggiest idea for who or what they’re voting for.

    • Mike says:

      Exactly!!!
      uninformed and misinformed voters that haven’t the foggiest idea for who or what they’re voting for.
      How do we insure that the voters are well informed. I think that would make a big difference. Some type of a voter aptitude question. The propositions are always designed to confuse the voters.

  • Ronald Keel says:

    It’s obvious what is going on here. The thieves and cheats are counting ballots as they roll in to see how many they need to add in order to ensure the selection voice of the communists. How is it that Florida can count all of their votes and have a decision in one day when the population in Florida makes Alaska look like a village. It’s a lie people. Sit on your laurels waiting for Joe next door to get your responsibility taken care of? Dunleavy is bought and paid for just like Dahlstrom in my opinion. Just look at their track records. Fruit of their labor?? They have a voice but prefer to hide in the shadows only coming out for the touchy, feely issues. Look at the condition of your roads. Why is it we build new roads without taking care of what we have first. How about our PFD, much more kicking can be done there, sadly our money is in the cross hairs of many selected, unethical, corrupt politicians. If the people sitting at the top had some guts we would have learned to live within our means meaning that our PFD never would have been an issue. Wise up folks and use your voice, everybody. It’s yours and your children’s future.

  • Bryan Bourne says:

    What’s the excuse for the few villages not getting their results in? Waiting for more snow to send them by musher? Thankfully the US govt spent billions to get everyone connected to high speed internet and they could be sent over the interwebs. Oh, wait. I sense some shenanigans like always. As for Dungleavy, the nutless wonder, does anyone really expect him to do anything? We’ve been waiting like 6 years…

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