Election update: District 27 race is now 56 votes apart

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We have a nail-biter.

Rep. Lance Pruitt of East Anchorage leads challenger Liz Snyder by just 56 votes, after absentee ballots were counted for District 27 on Wednesday by the Division of Elections.

“The district is a cliff-hanger. It has been in the four of the last five elections, and nothing is new, it’s all a matter who got the last three people to show up to vote,” said Randy Ruedrich, who analyzes Alaska elections from a Republican perspective.

Must Read Alaska has learned there are fewer than 400 full-count absentee ballots and 50 questioned ballots to be counted for that district.

Several groups of ballots were counted from different areas of the state today. But no results were more interesting than District 27, where House Minority Leader Pruitt is fending off a second attempt by hardline Democrat Snyder.

Looking at the whole ballot, Pruitt is significantly outperforming the top of the ticket. Pruitt won more votes than Donald Trump Trump-3,975, and only 86 votes less than Biden-4,386. Pruitt did better than Democrat for Senate Al Gross-4,185, and Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan-4,171. Pruitt also did better than Congressman Don Young.

Snyder now has 4,244 votes to Pruitt’s 4,300 votes.

The last batch to be counted in the district is thought to lean Republican, which may give Pruitt a few more votes. MRAK analysts believe he will win by about 70 votes.

In District 15, Republican David Nelson gained one vote in today’s count. All of his absentee ballots and questioned ballots are counted, although some may come in until the close of business on Nov. 13. Those are thought to lean Republican. Nelson is 116 votes ahead of Democrat Lyn Franks.

Statewide, in Congressman Don Young’s race, Democrat challenger Alyse Galvin needs 86% percent of remaining votes to win Alaska’s only congressional seat, after some 20,000 votes were counted today.

In the Senate race, Sen. Dan Sullivan race, Democrat Al Gross needs about 90 percent of the remaining votes to win.

With about 56,373 votes left to be counted, the gap that Gross would need to close is 51,222.

As of 8:20 pm on Wednesday, 289,185 ballots have been counted in the 2020 General Election.

20 COMMENTS

  1. Would like to know the breakdown of labor spent counting ballots this year. That should give us an idea of how many State employees should be laid off, permanently.

      • I am suggesting that you(probably an employee of the State) are WAY overpaid. The State of Florida has a population a bit larger that Alaska and they completed their count the day of the election. And the State employees in Alaska have been at it for 9 days now without an end in sight.

  2. Hi Susan, I’m interested in knowing what makes you guys think the remaining votes are leaning republican if they are mail in ballots?

  3. Poll workers need to be vetted better. I’ve seen pictures on social media of state workers counting ballots with pens in their hands. Also bragging about how many ballots they had processed. Doesn’t exactly instill confidence in the system.

  4. Pruitt’s opponent would be a poor legislator; no life experience except going to college and living off government. We have too many of those already. But he sure is a lackluster campaigner, and he is often barely interested as a legislator. I certainly hope he wins.

  5. Here is the campaign that needs to file a lawsuit challenging ballots that have no witness signature. THAT was an example of the AK Supreme Court changing our election laws. And opening us up to the possibility of voter fraud, and that having a very real possibility of leading to a change in the election outcome. SCOTUS already ruled that Pennsylvania’s court can’t change the state’s election law; this is a clear example of legislating from the bench and is far outside the court’s authority.

  6. So, depending on how Mr. Patkotak in District 40 goes, we could be looking at a 21 or 22 seat Republican majority at best. That’s if Steve Thompson and Louise Stutes join. A 20 to 20 deadlock or an outright Democrat majority seems more likely. Suzanne, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on that possibility.

    • Stutes is definitely going to caucus with the Democrats. She endorsed Ballot Measure 2, along with Bryce Edgmon and the rest of the gang

  7. Are candidates like this going to be Republicans, or “Republicans” who “reach across the aisle” to work out deals to screw over their constituents and hand Democrats the permanent governing majority? It’s probably time for people to start putting out their own candidates instead of relying on Establishmentarian squishes who stab us in the back.

    Lots of people refuse to vote these days because of feelings that there is just a Uniparty.

  8. Why is my comment being censored? The SCOTUS ruled that state courts cannot change election law. In Alaska’s case, our state supreme court ruled that mail in ballots do not need a witness signature due to the COVID pandemic. This is exactly on the same lines as decisions SCOTUS overturned in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Why isn’t anyone challenging our own example of legislating from the bench? And why have I been censored on this question by this outlet?

    • Hi Dee Cee. Would you show me where I can read about the SCOTUS decisions you referred to? I would greatly appreciate it!

    • Hi Dee Cee. I really do want to read up on the SCOTUS decisions you mentioned. Can you please point me to where I find these decisions. I would greatly appreciate your response.

  9. With the abundance of voter fraud in the lower 48, an audit not a recount should be done is Alaska. This smells fishy.

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