While Tara Sweeney, a Republican, won 54% of the northernmost regional vote in Alaska in District 40, there were just not that many votes cast so far — just 1,234 altogether in the special primary election to temporarily fill Alaska’s empty congressional seat. Over 108,000 votes were counted late Saturday night in the special mail-in-only election. That was her stronghold and even with similar results in next-door District 39, it was not enough for her to break into the top four in the special election, in spite of having the most money spent on her campaign and the independent expenditure group supporting her. Sweeney not making the top four was one of the bigger surprises in the election results from the June 11 special primary.
Most election analysts believe the final four who will appear on the August 16 ballot for this temporary seat will be Sarah Palin, Nick Begich, Al Gross, and Mary Peltola.
House District 38, out in Western Alaska, was Mary Peltola country. She took the most votes in her home region, with 44%. Palin got 13.87% and Begich got 13.24%.
House District 37, the Bristol Bay and Aleutian Island region, went solidly for Palin, 31.52%, even though it is represented by state Rep. Bryce Edgmon, who was a Democrat until dropping the D from his name a few years ago, while still caucusing as a Democrat. House District 37 is 44% Alaska Native, and yet over 54% of the vote went to Republicans.
Meanwhile, down in the Ketchikan area, the southernmost populated region of Alaska, 2,288 votes were counted so far, with Sarah Palin winning 33% of the vote, Al Gross winning 20.3% and Nick Begich taking third place at 17.46%.
As for Juneau, Gross, who is in third place overall, did best in his hometown, where he got 25.8% of the vote. Begich came in second there, with 12%, and Palin at 11.5% of the 3,915 votes cast.
South Eagle River House District 14 went more for Begich, with 23.21%, and Palin with 17.64%. Gross placed third, 13.79%.
The rest of Anchorage saw Palin and Begich sharing over 50% of the vote, almost evenly, with 25.84% for Begich and 25.53% for Palin. Overall in Anchorage, Palin underperformed against her statewide average of 30%.
North Eagle River voters leaned into Palin, who over-performed her state average, with 32.34% of the vote in House District 13. Begich won 24.26% in this, his hometown.
Anchorage Assemblyman Chris Constant, in his home neighborhood of House District 20, only won 13.27% of the vote. The Democrats in Constant’s district ignored the Alaska Democratic Party endorsement of Constant. Instead, Republicans got over 33% of the vote even in downtown Anchorage. No-party candidate Gross got 14.88%, followed by Begich at 14%, and Palin at 12.52%.
In Wasilla House District 10, it was heavy Palin country; some 70% of the vote went for Republicans, with Palin getting 45.66% and Begich getting 22.1%.
The top 4 of the 48 candidates on the special primary election will go on to an Aug. 16 special general election, which will be decided by ranked-choice voting.
View an interactive map showing the results from every district at this link.
The Division of Elections will release additional counts on June 15, 17, and 21. To date, 134,697 ballots have been received, with 4,772 of those ballots rejected by the board that is overseeing the ballots, for over a 3.4 percent rejection rate. More results at this link.
Every single one of the 48 candidates on the ballot received some votes.
.
In Juneau Charles Manson could run as a Democrat and win. Even if promising a literal bloodbath when elected.
But at least we’re not Anchorage.
Being an Election Junkie I am enjoying this. And the games are just getting started. Not many surprises so far.
3.4 % is a very high rejection rate! Any way of making sure my ballot wasn’t among the rejected?
You can track your ballot here:
‘https://anchorage.ballottrax.net/voter/
Easy, are you a registered republican or a registered democrat? If you are a registered republican you can be sure your vote was not counted. If you are a registered democrat you can be sure it was counted 2, 3, or maybe 10 times.
Ha! Even Constant’s own district doesnt want him!
I love it. Even Begich beat Constant in the People’s Democratic Republic of Downtown Anchorage.
He needs a special greeting at the next Assembly meeting. Every time making the”loser”L on their foreheads like he was so happy to do to others!
Thanks for the update, Suzanne!
Here on the frontier the “electorate” is primarily functionally illiterate. Politics is grounded on biases, fears, angers, hatreds, jealousies, resentments, and greed! The animal in us characterizes our back woods mentality. And the “cultured aspects” of society are used to ice over our baseness with the sweet frostings of love, kindness, fine arts, good music, and Sunday church services as if we can conveniently hide from ourselves! Look, the “trash” that Ben Stevens talked about isn’t limited to the Valley: it’s statewide and permeates even the finer societies throughout the state! Giddy-up, Art, Sarah’s in the saddle and wearing spurs!
Northwood Park Circle
Edit: It is what it is, but “back woods” definitely is “backwoods.”
Edit: “back woods” to “backwoods.”
Don’t bet on it.
“…….Anchorage Assemblyman Chris Constant, in his home neighborhood of House District 20, only won 13.27% of the vote………”
So how can this be explained by anything other than the muni counts votes in muni elections, and the state in state elections? That might be grounds for an investigation, but the feds can’t be trusted, either. Is it time for United Nations election monitoring?
Great idea Reggie, but you can’t trust the UN either… I’m a little surprised Sarah did as well as she did.
Since the UN is even more corrupt than the US government, there is NEVER a time for a UN investigation of anything in the US.
Investigation is appropriate, but not for the reason you imagine. Toxic Chris wins because no one runs against him – so why did his district “need” another representative? Because he and his handlers aim for excellence in high-performance cheating… just like the UN! Welcome to third world politics.
Barbara Jones needs to be canned for starters. I would love someone with some knowledge of muni law to explain how citizens could fix a situation, we can call it a hypothetical one for now, where the charter says the assembly appoints the city clerk and is the only entity that can fire the city clerk and the city clerk and the assembly are scratching each others’ backs in unethical ways to keep each other in their positions of power. It would be even worse if the mayor appointed the city clerk and there was no term limits for the mayor. I think the assembly thinks it’s good enough that they have to vote on it, so one person doesn’t have all of the power. But we all know how the liberal assembly and any liberal is united against anyone who isn’t a liberal these days and supports any liberal that doesn’t buck the liberal totalitarian applecart. They would still have no problem with Berky if Berky could have kept his love life more private. They had no issue with Cuomo putting covid patients in nursing homes amongst the vulnerable, even gave him a damn emmy, until sexual harassment claims wouldn’t go away. Shoot, so many are still fine with Fauci even after he tortured beagles, which should have been a deal breaker for most liberals who “buy responsibly”. So who knows what the assembly and Barbara are up to. The worst liberals now seem to have arrogance and self righteousness that has no end and fails to have any basic integrity. They collectively need to be taken to court where integrity is still somewhat important and where Alaska “Public” Media and ADN can’t monopolize the information presented.
AGREE 100+++%
It is way past time for an unbiased investigation of the municipal vote system. It is our right to have a voting system that we can have confidence in. Many wars have been started in other countries over corruption in the polls. We are not supposed to be a third world country, yet nothing visible is being done to increase voter confidence, other than media insisting that everything is on the up and up. Irregularities as you just mentioned are red flags for an educated society. Unfortunately for the cheaters, they consider most of the public to be dumb or disinterested. I for one, have more confidence in my fellow Americans and think the gig is just about up.
1 Palin Sarah Republican 32,371 29.77%
2 Begich Nick Republican 20,994 19.31%
3 Sweeney Tara M Republican 5,712 5.25%
4 Coghill John B. Jr. Republican 2,754 2.53%
5 Revak Joshua C. Republican 2,634 2.42%
6 Wright Stephen Republican 240 0.22%
7 Florschutz Otto H. III Republican. 165 0.15%
8 Lyons Robert “Bob” Republican 163 0.15%
9 Armstrong JayR. Republican 155 0.14%
10 Sumner Maxwell Republican 109 0.10%
11 Callahan John T. Republican 92 0.08%
12 Trotter Richard “Clayton” Republican 79 0.07%
13 Gibbons Thomas R. “Tom Republican 72 0.07%
14 Woodward Jo Republican 37 0.03%
15 Welter Bradley D. Republican 23 0.02%
16 Melander Mikel E. Republican 16 0.01%
Republican Voters TOTAL 65,616 60.32% Total Percent voted Republican
Milligan Mike Democrat 478 0.44%
Notti Emil Democrat 1,517 1.40%
Peltola Mary S. Democrat 8,101 7.45%
Wool Adam L. Democrat 1,865 1.72%
Thomas Ernest F. Democrat 159 0.15%
Constant Christopher S. Democrat 3,805 3.50%
15925 14.66%
Peltola Mary S. Democrat 8,101 7.45%
Constant Christopher S. Democrat 3,805 3.50%
Wool Adam L. Democrat 1,865 1.72%
Notti Emil Democrat 1,517 1.40%
Milligan Mike Democrat 478 0.44%
Thomas Ernest F. Democrat 159 0.15%
15925 14.66%
Mary Peltola has been unheard of for years. I can’t believe she can suddenly pop up and get in the top 4. Maybe the numbers needed to get 4th place will be so low she slips in. Heaven forbid she get the spot. She will not represent us equally.
Who is the board that is overseeing the election?
Interesting. I might have been wrong about rank choice voting. Please continue…
2,000 Mules
With the security sleeve providing Zero security..
Cannot help but speculate why the rejection rate was so high.
Santa Claus got more voted than Chris Constant.
So we have two Republicans and two Democrats. Yes that’s right, no one believes Al is nonpartisan, just look at who bank rolled his campaign. Medicare for all is pure socialist.
RG, you are correct, it merely proves that we have a two party system in America/ Alaska, the Evil Party and The Stupid Party. Republicans representing Stupid. Sarah Palins big win proves it” “Yah you betcha!”
Discloser- I am a recovering Republican, however I went with my Gut and voted for the Grandson of a Great Alaskan Conservative Representative and not for the endorser of Bill Walker.
Maybe you meant “Medicaid for all”, it’s NOT Medicare…From the “working class: “WE PAID FOR IT IN OUR “TAXES” while WE WORKED. We are not a free loder like Medicaid it.
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