General Election

The Alaska Republican Party requested the recount, which is being performed at the state’s expense because of the close final margin.

Roughly 5,800 ballots remain to be counted, largely from Anchorage and rural Alaska.

Nick Begich III now has 49% of first-place votes to U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola’s 46%, while Ballot Measure 2 is passing by a margin of 1 percentage point.

Voters favored a ballot measure backed by labor unions by a margin of 12.46 percentage points with roughly 70% of the ballots counted early Nov. 6.

Ballot Measure 2 was winning slightly, after the campaign was outspent 100-1.

Republican challenger Nick Begich III has a solid lead in the race for Alaska’s U.S. House seat.

All but two of the precincts in the lower Kuskokwim (22 out of 24) have reported initial elections results to the Alaska Division of Elections, and newcomer candidate Nellie Jimmie has increased her lead in the race to represent House District 38. But it isn’t a win yet.

The move to use sample ballots to record prompted some concern on a popular community Facebook page. But the state said it was perfectly legal.

The five areas of focus will be the Bethel Census Area, Dillingham Census Area, Kusilvak Census Area, North Slope Borough, and Northwest Arctic Borough – almost the entirety of the Northern and Western reaches of the state, with the exception of the Nome Census Area.

KYUK took a trip around town last week to ask a few people in the community about whether they plan to vote, and what types of issues matter most to them.