Day 15 of Alaska’s ballot counting: RCV repeal tightens again, Begich and Trump gain ground

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The Alaska Division of Elections released the results of 2,100 more ballots in the Nov. 5 general election. Tuesday marked the 15th day of counting ballots. All the work must be done by Nov. 20.

About 2,100 votes were cast in the presidential race, and the votes swung more toward Nick Begich for Congress and Yes on Ballot Measure 2, the repeal of ranked-choice voting. While yesterday, the No votes had a 200-vote lead, now the No votes have just a 45-vote lead.

Nick Begich is leading Mary Peltola for the congressional seat, 157,331 to 149,763.

Nov. 20 is the last day for absentee ballots from military overseas voters. Final results will be posted Wednesday followed by ranked choice tabulation at 5 p.m. Approximately 5,800 ballots remain for tomorrow’s count, the Division said.

KTOO will broadcast the ranked-choice calculation on Wednesday, starting around 5 p.m. at this link.

70 COMMENTS

      • Curiously, the folks on MRAK are saying the late ballots are likely leftist because they are more likely to vote by mail.
        Can’t be both, and I think you are correct, not them. They are just trying to dismiss the fact that 100% of the time a last minute surge of votes always benefits the left side of the political aisle.

  1. As I mentioned in an earlier thread on MRA, the RCV will lose with just enough YES votes, to avoid an investigation into the “rampant and predicable” cheating by the Left. If for any reason RCV prevails here in Alaska, there should be a complete and thorough investigation of the DOE, along with the supervisory chain of custody of ALL the paper ballots along with the vote tabulators. In addition, all the DOE employees working all of the precincts throughout the State should be investigated. This shoddy and woeful reporting of our election has made Alaska a laughing stock throughout the Nation.
    No one takes us seriously anymore, anyways. How can we lead with Energy Independence if we can’t even count some 367,000 votes in a timely manner?

    • Jeff, we already have had one investigation of the DOE. It’s called the Tshibaka Report. Our governor has buried it and refused to release it even after many requests. Even Sen. Shower had to settle for a totally redacted report when he was drafting a bill to reform elections. Tshibaka is very smart and detail oriented and her report must have been a huge embarrassment for the Dunleavy administration. So, we need to insist that Dunleavy explain the Tshibaka Report as a starting point and then go for same day voting,paper ballots with no machines, all Absentees must be received by noon Election Day.

    • Embarrassing to say the least.
      Corrupt.
      Lisa M winning a write in senatorial elections – yeah right.
      How are these “elections” coming down to 1% or so – is this even statistically possible?

  2. Agreed! And Credit where cridit is due, the legislature stautues they put in and >>>
    Shame on Nancy Dalstrom Lt Gov in charge of elections!

  3. If the Alaska Supreme court would quit interfering with the Alaska Constitution, which states: “The power of grand juries to inquire into the willful misconduct in office of public officers, and to find indictments in connection therewith, shall never be suspended.” Alaska Constitutional Convention, December 15, 1955.

    As it stands right now, we the people have no recourse to address the sloppy way the elections are run or to hold any election officials accountable. Our right to request the Grand Jury to investigate has been taken away from us by the Alaska Courts.

    There’s also the issue of the Kelly election report commissioned by Governor Dunleavy after the 2022 election mess. To date the Kelly report has never been released in-tack to the public; several Legislators have requested, and been given redacted copies. The report is hidden from the public by Gov. Dunleavy, behind “deliberative process” privilege.

    • The courts are walking hand in hand with the liberal bottomless wallet that has been running the bureaucratic tyranny that is destroying our society. Kendal and his ilk are a pox on our state and continually use their allies on the courts to marginalize the citizenry and push their socialist agenda.

  4. During the lead up to this election season, the left would demand from many republicans an iron clad commitment that they would concede the election when it was clear they lost. Apparently it’s a ‘not as I do’ moment for Mary Peltola. If Mary has any hopes of a political future, being a ‘refusenik’ loser is not the way to go.

    • I don’t remember the left saying to concede, I remember them saying accept the results. Something Trump and the MAGA crowd still can’t accept from 2020. It isn’t clear at this point. You concede when the decision is clear, Begich has not reached the 50% mark, and many of the outstanding ballots are from the Anchorage and rural areas of the state. When the counting is done, or there are not enough outstanding votes to catch up is when one should concede.

      • Because it was clear democrats rigged the election for Biden. Several states illegally altered their voting rules without the required approval from their respective legislatures.

      • There is about 200 years history before the election of 2020. The world did not start then.
        .
        And, Wayne is correct. When the election is down to the last few votes, the left will declare victory and insist the other candidate concede.

  5. People don’t do their homework on judicial candidates.

    I would have never except for the fact that one of the women is putting herself up too be an Alaska Supreme Court Justice.

    She concurrently stood on my neck and the civil rights of the Fairbanks Four so she could stand tall in Alaska.

    Here is Kate –

    ‘https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3380156/Did-Alaska-plane-crash-pilot-hit-wife-s-building-purpose-Man-stole-plane-circled-wife-s-law-firm-clipped-building-s-windows-crashing-death.html

    Here is what Kate wrote for her application to the judicial council – she dismissed that her husband was dead.

    ‘https://www.ajc.state.ak.us/selection/docs/Selection/nov-2024-applicants/demarest.pdf

  6. Phil Izon, who led the repeal action, is a class act. He doesn’t whine and invent imaginary cheating allegations without any proof. Instead, he intends to ensure a careful recount, and if the votes don’t fall his way, he’ll be back for another try next time. Phil, I hope you run for Lt. Gov some day

  7. Tens of millions spent on a measure to help elect more liberal politicians in Alaska… outspending the support for Ballot Measure 2 one hundred fold… When a “mere” 3-5 million could have purchased and refurbished a shelter for the homeless in Anchorage, or shored up one of the supposedly underfunded schools in the state… or have been used to fund more Troopers or investigators for cold cases… and still dwarf the spending in support of 2… Well, just goes to show what the priorities are from the people pushing RCV: it’s more important to ram this divisive issue down people’s throats than to solve Alaska’s problems.

    • A recount will include fraudulent ballots that have been mixed in. What you should be supporting is a full forensic audit.

      • Correct. Recounts almost never change the results.
        However, and audit will determine whether the ballot was legitimate and if it should have been counted.

  8. Remember when everyone voted in person on election day and everyone knew the results the same day?
    Thanks a lot for ruining that hart cellar act of 1964

  9. THE FOX IS GUARDING THE HEN HOUSE ! ALASKA HAS BECOME THE BIGGEST JOKE IN THE NATION. Lisa, Mary, Dan, Grier & the list goes on. Sounds like a SNL Skit.

  10. We need to take legal action. The constitution says one person one vote. I keep telling everybody whether you’re Democrat or Republican when you vote this way you lose control of your vote.
    The system takes your vote and put it where they want it and then they count it that way. Come on people wake up.

  11. We’ve seen this movie before in 2020. The Republican backed bills and candidates jump to an early lead and lead through election eve. Then, all the mail in ballots get counted and wow, the Democrats win by the slimmest of margins.

    • Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Tennessee have banned RCV.

      It is time to ban all of this dark money coming into the state that supports the opposite of the actual will of the people.

      • Those states have banned RCV for good reason. All are overwhelmingly dominated politically by the GOP, and few groups (certainly not political parties, Democrats too) willingly give up influence, in this case a bit more to voters (those pesky voters) and a bit less to the dominant political party. Political parties – as most of us – like to control as much as possible.

    • Colorado had Open Primaries and RCV on the ballot this year (CO Prop 131). BIG money was thrown in support of RCV (~$14M+ support, ~$400K+ oppose, per ballotpedia). State politicians, including the governor and senator, supported RCV. It seemed like ads in support of RCV were non-stop, and that it had a good chance of passing. Yet, RCV failed to pass in CO… By quite a large margin; 200K+ more votes saying no to RCV (~53.5%).

      Go figure indeed!

  12. Alaska’s legislature needs to pass a law prohibiting ouside money in any ballot measures: city, borough or state.

  13. Come on guys- enough with the election fraud bs. It weakens our democracy. It was the money spent and the appeal (even if ads were a little misleading) of more choice- also- it probably helped get begich (a more electable candidate) in the house – then somebody along the lines of Palin…please republicans let’s put our democracy and our country above this shameful Trump MAGA election denying! Our country is better off with people like Lisa and Sullivan than people like Guliani and Mr. My Pillow …and Trump for that matter

    • “Enough with the election fraud bs…”
      .
      No. Sorry, but when something odd happens during an election, it deserves to be investigated. But, try investigating and the forces on the left side of the political aisle will move heaven and earth to stop you from looking into it. And, it has been ramping up even more over the last decade.
      .
      If the elections are so secure, and transparent, why is the current administration pursuing criminal charges against people who question it? When someone says Dominion machines are insecure, instead of demonstrating their security, the company sues that person for defamation. (And, whenever the machines are challenged by a white hacker, they fail. Miserably.)
      .
      But, it is all bs, right?
      What is weakening our democracy is questioning the validity of an election in your mind? Seriously?
      If you are purchasing deadbolts for your home, do you just buy whatever, or do you ask which one is the hardest to compromise? You are obviously weakening your home security by asking those questions.

    • We don’t live in a Democracy and that is just the tip of the problem with your thought process. We live in a Constitutional Republic. Try to remember your elementary school social studies classes. RCV is a pox on our elections and should have never been a possibility, as it violates the US Constitution.

    • My brother in Christ, these folks are too far gone. If the vote outcome favors them, it’s an honest election. If the vote count doesn’t favor them, it’s a fraudulent election. If the vote count favors them on some issues/candidates, but not others, then it is a very clever type of fraud. Basically the elections are honest only when all their candidates/BMs win.

      That this election got them Trump and Begich just isn’t enough, so, fraud! And no amount of evidence (or lack there of) will dissuade them.

      • So tell me oh wise one.

        Where are the 81 million votes that supported your Uncle Joe in 2020?

        The answer to this may have something to do with people’s lack of confidence in mysterious never seen before votes coming out of the woodwork long after election day has past.

        Did they die of the mysterious Covid we bought and paid for in the name of advancing the science of viral engineering???
        Or was it the mysterious vaccine He mandated that Pharmaceutical research investors became rich developing?

        • Andy, you have a really good point there.
          In 2020, Biden got 81 million votes. But, in 2024, Harris got something like 15 million less votes. Trump’s ballot count did not change significantly between the two elections.
          .
          So, what happened to that 15 million voters? Did they just roll out for the 2020 election then disappear?
          .
          When something weird like that happens, it should be investigated. But, folks like BillNorthman will insist there is no widespread election fraud and actively try to prevent any investigation.
          .
          Then he will follow up by saying that if you cannot prove there is voter fraud, it does not exist.

      • Once again, plenty of evidence.
        But, no one is investigating. In fact, one side of the political aisle uses every legal (and likely a few illegal) methods they can to stop investigations.

        • So not even the Republicans are going to investigate? I mean, if there’s so much evidence, why aren’t they?

          Where is the evidence? Oh that’s right, you don’t have any. Boy, being MAGA takes an incredible amount of blind faith.

          • Let’s see. The day after the 2020 election, a whole host of Republicans were elbowing each other out of the way to be the first to the microphone to say it was the most secure election ever. And, the Republicans who did start investigations were shut down, hard.
            .
            Evidence, just a small sample:
            Counting stopped for the night, but the numbers are different in the morning, no one allowed to ask why.
            A city in Maine reports about 1,000 more votes then registered voters. (well, that got corrected, it was a typo. But, Maine’s statewide count did not go down by 1,000 votes.)
            The USPS driver delivers a truck full of ballots from the NYC area to Pennsylvania for… some reason.
            Multiple people are video taped stuffing ballot drop boxes in States where it is illegal to drop off a ballot for another person.
            An audit of the Maricopa county ballots reveal that between 10,000 and 105,000 (if I remember the numbers correctly) were cast illegally.
            Georgia had three counts of cast ballots, and came up with vastly different counts each time.
            Fulton County, GA (GA seems to be the state that keeps on giving here), had a difference of 19K+ ballots between the two machine counts.
            The state of Wisconsin used drop boxes despite the State Supreme Court confirming they are illegal.
            Multiple individuals who are legally incompetent and have not voted in ages suddenly voted (with assistance).
            PA counted more than 120K more votes than registered voters. Per PA law, they cannot certify the election until that discrepancy is resolved. But, the certified it anyway.
            PA also had over 71K absentee ballots returned after Election day. Per PA law, those cannot be counted, but they were.
            Republican poll watchers were removed from the building, while ballot counting continued. This happened in several jurisdictions.
            Arizona also accepted mail in ballots after the deadline. Against state law, illegally cast.
            Malicious software was discovered on voting machines that automatically set the results to support one candidate.
            .
            And, the list goes on and on and on and on. Every single of those items is evidence of election fraud.

          • And… just landing this morning:
            “Timothy Michael Scouton, 64, has been charged with one count of accepting the vote of an unregistered voter and one count of neglect of duty by an election official.”

            ‘https://lawandcrime.com/crime/election-judge-charged-with-felonies-for-allegedly-letting-11-unregistered-voters-cast-ballots/
            .
            More proof of election fraud. Right there.
            And, please do not come back with any “It did not change the outcome” or “it is only one charge.” If there is one election judge that is willing to violate the law, there are more. And, if he violated the law and got caught this time, odds are he violated the law multiple times in the past.

          • And, I almost forgot.
            Currently in PA, the Bucks County election officials are outright ignoring PA election law, and a directive from the PA State Supreme court, and they are counting ineligible ballots. Or, they were trying to.
            .
            But, no evidence of election fraud. Got it. You keep believing that.

    • Enough with the election BS, I say. Judges changing laws so elections are rigged, running out of ballots so people can’t vote, DoE moving polling stations with little notice and not being clear about where they’re moving them to, etc.

  14. A lot of folks voted NO on RCV when they meant to remove it. Stupid state lawyers caused that! Likely have to suffer with this Soros leftist fascist outside dark money RCV crap for another cycle….Good news is, wait for it,,,,,,,Trump WON…!!!!!!!

    • That isn’t on the state lawyers, that is on the writers of Ballot Measure 2.

      The question was pretty clear: Do you want to repeal RCV and go back to party primaries?

      If someone couldn’t clearly read that statement, then that is their problem with reading comprehension.

    • If that’s the case, then the judge who decided not having to spell Murkowski’s name correctly because he decided what voters intended should now come into play again. [Election 2010.]

  15. The very wording of “NO on 2” was set up that way in order to deceive the voting public. The DOE is responsible for allowing this, and their integrity is nonexistant. Disgraceful.

  16. If the repeal loses, remember the best way to beat RCV is to NOT rank! Let the libs rank on & dilute their vote. Just say NO to ranking. I think a lot of us are already doing that

  17. BM2 appears to have been defeated by less than 100 votes. After being quite a bit ahead on the election day count, it appears that the “count ’til you win” folks were able to shove enough illegal ballots into the system AFTER election day to prevail.

  18. Amazing that RCV repeal was this close when the NO advertisements outspent YES 100 to 1.

    We come back again in two years and make the Liberals spend $12 million again to try and defend it. That’s millions that won’t be available for other fights

  19. I say again….The state lawyers effectively wrote the ballot measure, and they wrote it such that many people thought a NO vote would remove RCV. That’s not opinion it’s fact. I had several people ask me how to vote to remove RCV. You can call these folks stupid if you want, but RCV is what we STILL have! And Phil Izon, bless his heart should have realized that the verbiage needed to be simpler to help the layman voter’s vote count as intended. If I’m wrong then explain to me why the next measure to repeal RCV will have very different verbiage! Also, I’d highly recommend that Phil Izon take advice from different folks as to how the verbiage goes next time lest we get our hats handed to us again!

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