Official Nov. 30 results from Division of Elections show Ballot Measure 2 losing by 737 votes

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Photo credit: Alaska Division of Elections

Ballot Measure 2 “no” votes increased slightly in the final and official count of ballots by the Alaska Division of Elections.

Before the division completed its check of its work on Saturday, the Ballot Measure trying to repeal ranked-choice voting was losing by 664 votes.

After the division checked everything, the ballot measure was losing by 737 votes.

The Alaska Republican Party has already said it would ask for a recount of that ballot measure. Some $15 million was spent by dark money from outside the state trying to convince Alaskans that ranked-choice voting was best for the state. That appeared to have had a big impact on the outcome.

Donald Trump lost 254 votes in the final official results, ending with 184,458 votes, while Kamala Harris picked up 214 more votes, ending with 140,026.

Nick Begich gained a 175 votes. In unofficial results, he had 159,375, but in the official results (before ranked-choice kicked in) he ended up with 159,550 votes in the congressional race. Rep. Mary Peltola also gained 232 votes, starting out in the unofficial pre-ranking results with 152,596, and ending up on Nov. 30 with 152,828.

After the ranking, Begich defeated Peltola 51.22-48.78%, according to the New York X account of @cinyc9, which does election data analysis.

In the House District 18 race, winner David Nelson had a 23-vote lead before the final result; his lead was reduced by one vote to 22.

This story is being updated on Nov. 30.

50 COMMENTS

    • I’ve read that it is happening along with divorces. That’s a shame that people let politics effect their personal lives. One guy on here threatened to come down and shoot me, and the attempt would likely have cost him his life. Keep your witts about you people.

    • CitizenKane, not voting is similar to being an atheist. Neither exist in reality. Everyone worships a god of some kind or another. The fact is, we are designed to worship. Either we worship the one true god, being Yahweh, or, we worship a false god such as “science” or nationality, etc. Currently, the single biggest religion in the USA is the NFL. Voting is similar. Those who don’t cast ballots are thereby voting passively. By not voting they are essentially supporting whatever ticket wins wins the election. In this case, the winning ticket was ranked choice voting. Losers by choice.

    • CitizenKane, not voting is similar to being an atheist. Neither exist in reality. Everyone worships a god of some kind or another. The fact is, we are designed to worship. Either we worship the one true god, being Yahweh, or, we worship a false god such as “science” or nationality, etc. Currently, the single biggest religion in the USA is the NFL. Voting is similar. Those who don’t cast ballots are thereby voting passively. By not voting they are essentially supporting whatever ticket wins the election. In this case, the winning ticket was ranked choice voting. Losers by choice.

      • Not a bad analogy. Non-voters could also be mentally lazy, or anarchists. If the latter, they see their non-participation as a form of rebellion. They enjoy conflict as observers. Kind of like an NFL tv junkie.

  1. Just bullet vote in all future elections. Do not select any of the remaining candidates.
    Please show me where this is not an effective way to defect the intent of RCV?

    • Al: This story was about the ballot measure. The BM 2 ballot measure on RCV was binary. You could vote yes or no. Bullet voting was your only real choice on BM 2, unless you filled in both the yes and no ovals, in which case your vote on BM 2 would have been tossed as an overvote.
      If you are weighing options regarding candidates, a bullet vote might not result in you being satisfied. For example, if you bullet voted for Nick Begich 2 years ago, your ballot was “exhausted” and because you didn’t rank your second choice you marginally helped Mary Peltola win Alaska’s congressional seat.
      Try and pass attention next time.

  2. I don’t see the point of a recount. If there is any fraudulent voting a recount just counts the fraudulent votes again. Our state has a chain of custody issue and if one really wants to root that out then it would require a forensic audit. Our elections need serious attention.

    • Elizabeth Henry, agree with you 100%. The AK GOP has hired Harmeet Dhillon and her law firm to oversee this recount. Seems to me they would not want their donor $$$ wasted so perhaps they are planning to do more than a simple recount?

    • Succinctly stated.
      .
      I find the thought of ALL those ballots being perfectly legitimate about as likely as Lisa Murkowski voting strictly, or even mostly, for Alaska’s interests.

    • One of obvious points for conducting a recount is to ascertain whether there was fraud. During a recount, it becomes obvious if systemic fraud took place.
      What, exactly, is a “forensic audit” of the election in your mind and how would this uncover fraud that would escape detection in a recount?

      • A forensic audit would start with random or consecutive review of voter sign-in or mail-in documents. The investigators would research whether select voters truly voted or not… by tracing names to addresses, etc. This type of investigation would not reveal how an imposter voted; rather, it would only indicate if fraud occurred. The current problem we have is the system is so insecure it basically encourages fraud. Anyone can now fraudulently vote with any of the tens of thousands of surplus mail-in ballots with impunity. They no longer even need to forge a witness signature. It would be quite impossible to prove any such fraud in a court of law. Think of a corollary: if we make it legal to shoplift up to $1000, then we will get more shoplifting under $1000. Simple logic.

        • Wayne: I agree sensible electoral reform would lower opportunity for fraud. Making mail in voting the default method is more expensive, slowed down return counting and marginally increased opportunity for fraud. That said, evidence of widespread, systemic fraud that altered election results has not likely occurred. We can and should do better.
          The administration of elections by current team illustrates why election of competent politicians matters.

    • Exactly. Recounts almost never change the outcome, unless the race is within a handful of votes.
      .
      Instead, we need an audit of the ballots, and the process.
      .
      If I were to give you a stack of rectangular pieces of paper, and tell you it is 100 $1 bills. But, only 95 of them are actual US currency, the remaining “bills” are handwritten notes saying $1 US.
      Count them all day long, and you will end up with the same number. 100.
      Audit them, and you will know five of the pieces of paper are not currency, therefore, they do not count.
      .
      Audit. Do not recount.

      • There is a fallacy in your analogy with the dollar bills. Assume 5% of our ballots were cast fraudulently. We will never know which ones; they all look the same and have no ID markers. Therefore, no audit, regardless of how much fraud is found, will ever result in revising the ballot count. Any security against fraud must take place before the ballots end up in the box. We must ask ourselves, why is ballot security being so dramatically loosened in recent years? We are now to the point where anyone can find a mail-in ballot, fill it in, forge the signature, with no witness necessary, and drop it in the mail. The only security check is a clerk supposedly checking every signature. That’s pretty loose security. The big question is, why are we allowing this?

        • Very good point. That is why it is an analogy.
          .
          Why are we allowing this? Because the average person does not care enough to get upset about it. Because the average person thinks “getting more people to vote” is a good thing. Because the average person is too wrapped up in the latest sportsball tournament or celebrity event to pay attention.
          .
          Main reason why we are allowing this is because the overwhelming majority of people will not take action on politics until it directly impacts their lives. In a negative way.

    • To Elizabeth Henry, you may already know about this startling news:
      .
      “Additionally, under Alaska Statute 15.20.480, properly cast absentee and overseas ballots that are received after the respective 10- and 15-day deadlines but before the completion of the recount —will be included in the recount.”
      (https://mustreadalaska.com/lt-gov-dahlstrom-approves-recount-of-ballot-measure-on-ranked-choice-voting/)
      .
      “The director shall count absentee ballots received before the completion of the recount.”
      (2023 Alaska Statutes, Title 15. Elections, Chapter 20. Special Procedures for Elections, Article 2. Election Recounts., Sec. 15.20.480. Procedure for recount.)
      (‘https://law.justia.com/codes/alaska/title-15/chapter-20/article-2/section-15-20-480/)
      .
      So, not only are DOE counting fraudulent votes again, but voters apparently have no way of knowing how many potentially fraudulent votes were –legally– sprinkled in after the election was over.

  3. The next time RCV comes up for vote, I hope it can be explained clearly on signs and most importantly voting ballots. I was all ready to vote yes until I really started researching. Unfortunately, most people do not do their research so hopefully it can be explained for the uniformed.

    • You make a very good point.
      Voting yes would have gotten rid of jungle primaries and RCV. Did you want to keep RCV in place? If so, someone almost fooled you into voting against RCV. The opposite is also true. If you voted No on BM2, but wanted RCV repealed, advertising got you to vote against your wishes.

  4. Funny how the totals keep feeling leftward… Nothing to see here, these are not the fake votes you’re looking for, move along!

  5. Not surprised – there was no hope through the Division of Elections of changing anything in the right direction. A hand-recount will most likely add a few more to the left. A forensic audit might show some areas of vulnerability, but will not prove any nefarious activity. We do have areas that ballot accountability is an issue. But the end of listing excuses comes down to: getting out the conservative vote; out-hustling the unions and the Native organizations; having poll watchers in every polling place; eliminating mail-in ballots; requiring picture identification to receive a ballot. We know what to do… NO MORE EXCUSES!
    We beat Mary Peltola, despite being outspent by a huge margin. Dark money isn’t the only reason we lost the rcv ballot measure 2 – slick, misleading ads and a big push by the unions did us in. Recount BM2 we will, but don’t hold your breath – time to gear up and donate for the 2026 ballot measure to kill rcv.

  6. This was all about Murkowski. She is the winner.
    Alaskans who want a normal democratic election (Murkowski cannot win a normal Republican primary anymore) are the losers.

    • Wait a minute.
      There was another potential “winner” sitting in a cell in New York.
      The RCV system was designed for losers like Murky and New York criminals.

  7. Meanwhile, Conservative, Inc. is giddily telling us about how successful ‘banking votes’, ‘too big to rig’, and other stupid ideas won Trump all kinds of new voters in 2024 over 2020….conveniently not mentioning that Harris has collected enough votes since election night to be within 1% of the popular vote – Trump at slightly less than that magical 50%…According to the voting “data”, all of the new voters for Trump only accounted for 2 million people more than 2020 when their own data is showing double digit growth across almost every demographic group. And even more troubling are all the down ballot races that are being handed to the left with no opposition from the GOP….sure, they voted for Trump but they didn’t want MAGA in the legislative branch or their state or local governments… Look in Alaska – we have an even weaker state legislature and local governments and RCV…..did the uni-party agree to let all this slide in exchange for Begich’s seat?

    Whoever is behind all of this is very clever….keep people thinking we are evenly divided with that magical 50% BS, that “we’ll get them next time” so keep contributing, and that “dark money” convinced the stupid people to vote against their best interests…..keeps the same people in power and the masses thinking they have some control over it….Meanwhile, the state is opening immigrant job centers, creating permanent homeless housing, and completely locking in socialism…..but we’ll get them next time so sign up now to get RCV repeal on the ballot in 2028!! We truly are a stupid people.

      • Go after our “elected” officials to repeal it like they could have done in 2022. Instead of (or even in addition to) signing petitions to get it on the ballot again, sign petitions to our legislature to repeal it. We also need a real assessment of the lack of faith that people have in our elections so part of the petition process should be to highlight that to our legislature. This is not a partisan issue if they truly believe that they are fairly elected to represent their constituents. It’s time to make these people and our party representatives famous by showcasing how little they truly care about their constituents. Isolating a few might be the most effective means – maybe our politically ambitious Lt. Governor whose job it is to secure our elections and make us all believe it?

      • Call on Governor Dunleavy to cancel RCV now by invoking Art. 3, Sec. 16, because it violates both constitutional and statutory law.

    • And yet, it keeps happening in all the places where they use software and computers to count the vote….Brazil is another great example.

    • As soon as you realize pretty much every contest on every ballot is a yes/no vote, it is not exactly that unbelievable.
      We are, whether we want to admit it or not, a two party system in the USA. It is either Democrat or Republican. Yes there are other parties, but what do they get, 0.1% of the vote. Not really any different than flipping a coin. About a 50/50 distribution, with a few “edge” tossed in.
      .
      Now, that analogy fails at a local level, politically. There are cities, districts, etc… that are strongly either blue or red. But, on the State and National level, it will even out. Just like flipping a coin.

  8. Alaskans who favor freedom do not want ranked choice voting. There must be many part time Alaskans who vote by mail. Voters in the state on the election day would have voted it down. Why is the state so liberal with who qualifies for PFD and who can be mailed a ballot? Military absentees were once the main contingent. There probably could be other exceptions on a case by case basis. We need to tighten up the voter roles.

  9. Surely everyone sees the dishonest irony of spending $15 million of outside money, just to convince us that defeating Measure 2 would prevent outsiders from telling us how to vote! The dishonesty of the left continues to grow, and grow, and grow.

  10. Call on Governor Dunleavy to cancel RCV now by invoking Art. 3, Sec. 16, because it violates both constitutional and statutory law.

  11. “After the division checked everything, the ballot measure was losing by 737 votes.”

    Yes, but how many of those votes are legitimate? Did anyone check signatures and dates? Were the people dead voters or legitimate?

  12. The first problem is that the people behind the advertising do not have any problems lying!
    The other problem is that too many people believe what they see on tv and hear on the radio.
    This outcome was purchased.

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