The Alaska Division of Elections will begin counting absentee mail-in votes today, working through the rest of week so that Alaska can finally declare which candidate for president has earned Alaska’s three electoral college votes, among other races. Here’s what to watch for with Kodiak’s vote:
For the 2020 General Election, Kodiak cast 4000 ballots on Election Day. But nearly 3500 absentee ballots have yet to be counted; that’s nearly half of all Kodiak ballots.
These absentee ballots will determine Kodiak’s down ballot, notably the race for State Senate P. Incumbent Republican Gary Stevens currently leads challenger Greg Madden after election day votes were counted, but Madden would have to win roughly two-thirds of the absentee vote to unseat Stevens.
For the congressional races, Al Gross would also need two-thirds of Kodiak’s absentee votes to have a shot at defeating Dan Sullivan for US Senate. Alyse Galvin would need 60% of those votes to say she has Kodiak’s support in defeating Don Young.
And in the race for the presidency, Joe Biden would need 70% of the absentee vote in order for Kodiak to go for the Democratic nominee.
Kodiak’s voices in the ballot measure debates are much closer.
The absentee vote count will break the current statistical tie for Ballot Measure #1, concerning oil industry taxation, and will break the dead heat for Ballot Measure #2, concerning ranked choice voting, where the Kodiak “yes” vote is ahead by 100 votes. Both of these measures can go either way once the absentee vote is counted.
And mail-in votes could be trickling into the state all the way through November 18, which is the deadline for ballots from overseas, particularly from military personnel, to arrive.
Stay tuned to KMXT for election updates.