Live election blogging

Must Read Alaska is live blogging on Election Day. Check back for updates. 

5:30 pm: Doing a bit of number work on the absentee-by-mail ballots. There is a net Republican advantage of 6,000 or more statewide, and at least two thirds will be counted tonight, and the balance will be counted within 10 days.

Here’s the breakdown, according to our calculations:         

Total: 25,313  

Of the outstanding absentee ballots not yet received:

Total: 12,343

 These remaining absentee by mail ballots may add another 1,000+ Republican votes.

3:30 pm: We’re talking with Mike Dunleavy for Alaska “data guy” Jordan Shilling, who says that KTUU will be be here for a live broadcast at 5 pm and and all supporters are welcome at the headquarters at 400 West Northern Lights to show their support.

“We’ve exceed 100,000 calls last night,” Shilling said, speaking about calls made over the course of the campaign. The crew made more than 4,000 calls today.

2:30 pm: We’re talking with former Lt. Gov. Loren Leman about the 2002 election with Frank Murkowski. Three weeks out from the election, Fran Ulmer was leading Frank Murkowski. Internal polling showed the Murkowski camp down by 11 points.

But on Election Day, the Murkowski-Leman ticket won by 15 points. Murkowski didn’t show up in state until after Oct. 1 because he was in the Senate, and it was in session.

“I was all over the state, and I worked it hard, but there’s nothing like having the gubernatorial candidate in state.

“Near Tok, we landed our plane on the Alaska Highway and pulled off to the side of the road, and we went into a community hall. There was a guy playing the guitar. He said, ‘We’ve never had a lieutenant governor before.’ The population of that town was 8.”

The moral of the story, he said, is that Alaska didn’t choose the tax plan of Fran Ulmer, but chose to grow out of its financial straits, the vision of Frank Murkowski.

“The phone banking really helped,” said Mark Davis, who remembers that campaign.

2 pm: 15 people are currently at the Alaskans for Dunleavy headquarters on Northern Lights Blvd. in Anchorage, making phone calls to encourage voters to get out and vote.

This morning, volunteers reached 30,000 phone numbers with text messages to remind voters that polls close at 8 pm.

More than 62,000 people had voted their ballots by the time the polls opened at 7 am. Those voters include absentee, fax, online, in person and special needs voters.

The Division of Elections website has the early voting details.

Check for your polling place here.

Polls close at 8 pm.

Send your voting and campaign anecdotes to [email protected]