Another 500 absentee votes from Kodiak were received by the Alaska Division of Elections yesterday, raising Kodiak’s mail-in total to 3,063 ballots, a record for the district.
Adding these ballots to the Election Day total of 4,022 gives Kodiak a voter turnout of nearly 7,100, a few hundred short of the record set in 2016 of 7500 ballots.
With 14,000 registered voters, Kodiak’s voting district, which includes Cordova and Yakutat, has already surpassed 50% voter turnout for the 2020 elections, but is smaller than 2016’s turnout of almost 60%.
However, more absentee ballots from Kodiak will be received by the Division of Elections over the next few days, so it is likely that Kodiak will match 2016’s turnout.
While Kodiak results show Republicans leading in the presidential and US Senate race by a margin of over 1200 votes, some races are separated by only a few hundred, including the US House race between Alyse Galvin and Don Young. And the Ballot Measure results are separated by only a few dozen.
On Election Day, the Kodiak archipelago precincts with the highest in-person turnout were Ouzinkie, with over 40% turnout, the Mission Road precinct—with 35% turnout, or 1300 voters—and Kodiak No. 2 (sometimes called the “Teen Center” precinct) with 32%, or 650 voters. Yakutat had the highest district-wide turnout of almost 50%.
On the Island, Chiniak had the lowest in-person turnout, with only 5 ballots cast, and the South precinct, which includes Karluk and Akhiok, saw a 12% Election Day turnout. Villages, though, were encouraged to send their ballots via mail, so these numbers will likely increase next week.
In the presidential race, only two Kodiak archipelago precincts voted for the Democratic ticket: Chiniak and Ouzinkie. The Mission Road precinct announced their overwhelming support for the Republican incumbents with 71% of the votes for the president and 75% of the votes for Senator Sullivan.
The story is a little different for the US House race. Six of Kodiak district’s 14 precincts cast more votes for Independent challenger Alyse Galvin than incumbent Republican Don Young, and even then, the margin favoring Young in other precincts is fewer than ten votes.
Seven of Kodiak district’s precincts voted to approve Ballot Measure #1, concerning oil industry taxes, on election day, yet the measure is currently behind by only 25 votes. And 10 precincts voted to approve Ballot Measure #2, concerning ranked choice voting, by over 100 votes.
In terms of Kodiak’s voice, the races to watch, when the over 3,000 absentee ballots are counted next week, will be the US House race and the Ballot Measures, which are too close to call right now.