| Candidate | Votes | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Don Young | 42,539 | 45.47% |
| Sean Parnell | 42,387 | 45.31% |
| Gabrielle LeDoux | 8,618 | 9.21% |
RESULTS: AP (House) | AP (Senate) | AK Division of Elections | ADN.com
11:50PM: Here are the exact numbers of outstanding sample ballots: 204 in Petersburg and 53 in Wrangell. Fenumiai also expects “between 5,000 and 10,000 questioned ballots to be counted Sept. 5” and as many as “8000-plus” absentee ballots (though it’s likely that this number is smaller rather than larger).
9:41PM: In the comments, ChuckinSeattle makes a great observation on the outstanding votes in Wrangell and Petersburg, where officials ran out of regular ballots and instead allowed voters to use sample ballots — Young won the reported votes in Petersburg by 158-135, and Wrangell by 158-75. So there’s a very good chance that these special ballots will help pad the Donald’s margin. But how will the outstanding absentee ballots break? That could be anyone’s guess.
5:53PM: At this precious time, it’s worth noting who is in charge of oversight at the Alaska Division of Elections. Why, you guessed it: Sean Parnell himself! Let’s hope he doesn’t pull another Katherine Harris here.
5:46PM: Wow, this could go on for another couple of weeks:
But absentee and questioned ballots won’t be counted until Sept. 5. Also, the division of elections ran out of Republican primary ballots in Petersburg and Wrangell late Tuesday afternoon. Republican voters in those Southeast Alaska towns were then allowed to vote using sample ballots, which are valid, but they won’t be counted until the state election review board starts its work on Sept. 8, Fenumiai said.
She said she didn’t know how many people in Wrangell and Petersburg voted using those sample ballots. It’s also unclear how many absentee ballots will be counted in the race. The state mailed out over 16,200 and has received about 7,600 back.
“So there’s still a potential for 8,000-plus of those to come back,” Fenumiai said.
She said some of the absentees were counted Tuesday, but she didn’t know how many. The state won’t be counting any more absentees until Sept. 5, Fenumiai said.
Awesome. This is set to be a long, drawn-out, bitter process.
5:39PM: With just a single precinct (and presumably a bunch of absentee ballots) remaining, Young is now up by 152 votes. Wow. Young may be a crumb-bum, but he’s OUR crumb-bum today.
12:06PM: From the Anchorage Daily News:
Most of the precincts that hadn’t reported election results as of midnight were from rural Alaska villages. Those are “typical Young strongholds,” Anderson said. But Parnell wasn’t convinced Young was going to clean up in the Bush, especially given many rural residents might choose to vote in Tuesday’s Democratic primary instead of Republican contest.
There are also the 16,000 absentee ballots the division of elections mailed out. It has received back 7,600 of them and Gail Fenumiai, director of the state division of elections, said she didn’t know how many of those have been counted. As long as the absentee ballots were postmarked Tuesday, the division will continue to count them for the next 10 days. Questioned ballots will be counted on Sept. 5.
12:00PM ET: Time for a fresh new thread. I know you all want to keep discussing these stunning results!
Young is unlikely to lose ground when the remaining precincts finally come in, so it will all come down to the uncounted absentees, not to mention ones that are in the mail. Right now even the election department there has no idea how many are left.
What we want is arrogant Young to declare victory, Parnell to challenge, and this thing to end up in a nasty recount and subsequent court fight.
I’m glad I am on vaca right now.
How much better does Parnell have to do among the remaining precincts and the absentee ballots to take a decent lead?
How did the first 7600 absentees vote?
I didn’t even remember that this was happening last night. And suddenly it’s like Christmas morning.
It’s just like Don Young said to Sean Parnell when he announced: “I’ll beat you just I beat your Dad.”
And a messy recount could be helpful, but we get too greedy if we want a recount and a suit etc. Young winning the primary is all we should hope for as it makes Berkowitz’s general election victory nearly certain. There’s still a possibility of Parnell winning a recount.
Even if Parnell’s and Young’s numbers were exactly the same in head to heads against Berkowitz (and in fact Parnell is running 10 points better than Young consistently vs. Berkowitz,) Young would be far preferable to Parnell because there is no ability for a multi-term incumbent who is stuck in the mid to low 40s to grow his/her popularity whereas the still new Parnell could convince undecided folks that he’s their guy.
Finally, Young has drained his treasury and will have trouble raising more with the Gov and Lieut Gov pissing on him. He’s toxic, baby!
I would have thought there would be some finished count of the election day ballots by now….
Parnell, Sean R. 42387 45.31%
Young, Don E. 42539 45.47%
The big question is how many absentee ballots are left to be counted, and where are they from. Not to mention any ones in transit that were post-marked before yesterday.
Hopefully there are not many left and Young can hang on, or at least tie the case up in the courts with much acrimony.
http://www.adn.com/elections/s…
is essentially happening.
Only way it could get better is if Young’s lead shirks but he holds onto it and Parnell says all kinds of bitter things and refuses to endorse him or something.
Perfect!
This will be a blowout in November.
Why does the AK Division of Elections show more candidates on ballot than the AP results do?
to campaign for now as he shifts from the primary to general election?
It could be several weeks before he knows who his opponent will be:
– no more absentee ballot counting until Sept 5th
– no counting of the Petersburg and Wrangell ballots until Sept 9th
– assuming an almost certain recount which probably will be very slow with lawyers on both sides examining every ballot. That could take a couple weeks.
Berkowitz may have all of September all to himself.
Amazing.
Good news from Petersburg and Wrangell if you look at their unofficial results. The uncounted sample ballots could easily break for Young.
http://www.elect.alaska.net/da…
Petersburg:
69: LeDoux
135: Parnell
158 Young
and ever better:
Wrangell
42: LeDoux
75: Parnell
158: Young
The missing precint is the tiny village of Hughes.
and running against corrupt republicans. he doesn’t even have to name them.
Not sure if anyone’s noticed, but that last precinct has finally come in. Young’s lead is now 151 (he lost 1 vote in his margin). Now we just have to wait unti the 5th (or 8th, or …)