Update as of 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 19
A ballot measure that would repeal Alaska’s ranked choice voting and open primary system remains on track to fail, though its margin has shrunk to just 45 votes.
In the latest update on Nov. 19 from the Alaska Division of Elections, “No” on Ballot Measure 2 leads by just 0.02% in a race in which 315,633 votes have been counted to date. The Nov. 19 update included 2,050 newly counted votes. The new ballots came largely from voters in Southeast Alaska and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.
“No” took the lead by 192 votes on Nov. 18 after trailing since Election Day.
The closely watched ballot measure would replace Alaska’s top-four open primaries and ranked choice general elections with party primaries and single-choice general elections. The No on 2 campaign attracted nearly $14 million in contributions, largely from outside the state, and outspent the Yes on 2 campaign by a 100-to-one margin.
Roughly 5,800 ballots remain to be counted on Nov. 20, the final day of counting in Alaska’s elections. It’s also the last day for absentee ballots to arrive from overseas voters. Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher said by email that the remaining ballots will mostly come from voters in Anchorage and rural Alaska.
Election officials will tabulate the ranked choice results in races where no candidate reached 50% of the vote at 5 p.m. Nov. 20.
The standings in other races remained unchanged following the Nov. 19 update.
Original story:
The ballot measure that would repeal Alaska’s open primary and ranked choice voting system is now failing by the narrowest of margins, according to the latest results update from the Alaska Division of Elections on Nov. 18.
Out of 314,056 ballots counted so far, “No” on Ballot Measure 2 now leads by 192 votes, 50.03% to 49.97%.
The flip follows the tallying of nearly 4,000 more votes on Nov. 18. Election officials are still counting ballots through Nov. 20, and estimate that there are roughly 7,800 ballots outstanding.
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Nov. 18 marked the first time since election night that No has taken the lead. No on 2 Campaign Manager Juli Lucky said she was not surprised No pulled ahead.
“We’ve heard from a lot of voters all over the state about how important it is to have representation that looks like them,” Lucky said. “What we heard from Alaskans was that there was a lot of support to keep open primaries and ranked choice voting in place.”
Former Lt. Gov. Loren Leman, an advocate for the repeal measure, said Yes on 2 was thoroughly outspent and didn’t have enough money to counter what repeal opponents were saying in their barrage of ads and mailers.
“It was like 100 to one,” Leman said. “And you know, when you have a campaign like that, it’s really tough to respond, and especially to all the deception. It was really just a very difficult campaign.”
Some repeal advocates are casting aspersions on the integrity of the vote counting. Leman, when he was lieutenant governor, used to be in charge of the Alaska Division of Elections. He said he doesn’t see any cause for suspicion. Alaska, he noted, gives up to 15 days for ballots to arrive for overseas military voters.
“I have no reason not to trust the director of the [Alaska] Division of Elections,” Leman said. “She’s an incredibly competent and honest person.”
Ballot Measure 2 is one of a handful of tight races that remains unresolved nearly two weeks after Election Day.
In the United States House race, Republican challenger Nick Begich III is holding on to his lead. The Nov. 18 count shows he’s ahead with 48.5%. He declared victory on Nov. 16 after a data company called Decision Desk HQ called the race for him.
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Congresswoman Mary Peltola, a Democrat, trails with 46.3%. The Alaska Division of Elections will tabulate ranked choices on Nov. 20, but those ballots may not help her. A conservative Alaskan Independence Party candidate, John Wayne Howe, has about 4% of the vote, quadruple the share received by federal inmate Eric Hafner, who filed as a Democrat.
Another of the unsettled races, for House District 18 in North Anchorage, remains tight. Rep. Cliff Groh, D-Anchorage, now leads his Republican challenger, David Nelson, by just 25 out of 3,530 votes.
A handful of additional races where no candidate reached 50% of the vote will be determined when officials tabulate voters’ ranked choices on Nov. 20.
