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Count goes on: Division of Elections says there are 35,000 ballots to go

Suzanne Downing
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50
Count goes on: Division of Elections says there are 35,000 ballots to go

The Division of Elections released information today that sheds light on the state of the Nov. 5 election’s ballot count.

“Unofficial estimate of ballots left to be counted/received is approximately 35,000. Our election officials are working around the clock. The deadline to receive absentee ballots postmarked on election day and mailed within the U.S. and its territories is Friday, Nov. 15,” the Division reported. Not all of the absentee ballots that were requested by voters will be returned; some people choose to vote in person, even if they have an absentee ballot, while others just never return.

The count includes about 48,000 absentee ballots, 69,000 early votes, and 3,800 questioned ballots, the division told AP.

They have received 73,148 early ballots. They’ve counted 69,000 early ballots. There are about 4,000 left to count.

There are 13,093 questioned ballots. They’ve counted 3,800 of them. There are about 9,300 left to count.

The division sent out 60,122 absentee-by-mail ballots and have received 44,936 ballots back from voters. There are 17,438 absentee-by-mail ballots left to count.

They have counted or will count 14,622 in-person absentee ballots.

They have processed 5,086 online absentee ballots, and 18 faxed absentee ballots.

They have processed 776 special-needs absentee ballots.

The absentee total is 66,341. They’ve counted about 48,000 of those. That leaves about 18,341 left to count.

In 2020 and 2022, roughly 20% of absentee ballots by mail that were sent out to voters were never returned to the Division of Elections.

In 2024, the division sent out 60,122 absentee-by-mail ballots, and has received 45,494 back. At most, based on historical results, we can expect around 3,000 absentee-by-mail ballots, at most, more to come in.

John Thune elected Senate majority leader; Trump endorses Mike Johnson for speaker

Suzanne Downing
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John Thune elected Senate majority leader; Trump endorses Mike Johnson for speaker

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota will be the Senate Republican majority leader beginning in January, as Republicans are poised to take control of the Senate, the House and the Oval Office.

With 53 seats now Republican, Thune will not need the cooperation of Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska or Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who are two senators who are unreliable allies of the Republican caucus.

Thune spoke to the Alaska GOP convention in July in Milwaukee, Wisc. at the invitation of Sen. Dan Sullivan. Thune has been a strong supporter of the Alaska economy, believing in Alaska’s resource potential. He has been to the state several times.

““All three candidates for Senate Majority Leader are good friends of mine who will work relentlessly to implement the Trump policies that the American people just overwhelmingly voted for. I pressed each of them on implementing key elements of the incoming Trump administration agenda, as well as important priorities for Alaska. Senator Thune has a long history of helping Alaska and understanding our state’s unique challenges. I am confident our new Majority Leader will work closely with the new administration and members of the new Senate Majority to confirm President Trump’s nominees, advance our legislative agenda, and put America back on track,” Sullivan said in a statement to Must Read Alaska.

In the 1980s Thune worked for President Ronald Reagan, and later was the executive director of the South Dakota Republican Party, before being named the director of the state’s railroad. He ran in 1996 and won a seat in the U.S. House and later won a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2004.

For the 118th Congress, he serves on the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee; the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee; and the Finance Committee. He serves as ranking member of the Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband and ranking member of the Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight. 

He also serves as the Senate Republican whip, the number two position in Senate Republican leadership, and has previously served as chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee from 2009–2011 and chairman of the Senate Republican Conference from 2012-2018.

Both Sen. Sullivan and Sen. Murkowski supported Thune in his bid to lead the U.S. Senate.

On Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump threw his support to House Speaker Mike Johnson to continue in that role in the coming year. The House Speaker is third in line to the presidency, and is a position of interest to any sitting president.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead new Department of Government Efficiency
Trump names Ratcliffe to CIA, Hegseth to Defense, and Huckabee as ambassador to Israel
Tulsi Gabbard to be director of National Intelligence, Rep. Matt Gaetz to be U.S. Attorney General

Tulsi Gabbard to be director of National Intelligence, Rep. Matt Gaetz to be U.S. Attorney General

Suzanne Downing
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Tulsi Gabbard to be director of National Intelligence, Rep. Matt Gaetz to be U.S. Attorney General

Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard will serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s director of National Intelligence.

Gabbard was a longtime Democrat who quit the party, endorsed Trump, and then became a Republican. Critics have pounced on her, saying she lacks experience. It was the Biden Administration who placed her on a secret terror watch list, she said earlier this year, labeling her a potential terrorist. She said it was political retaliation.

She is a former United States Army Reserve officer, and served as U.S. representative for Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021. She also was the first Samoan-American member of Congress.

Gabbard came to Alaska in 2020 to complete one of her U.S. Army Reserve duty commitments, and spent time in the Aleutians.

“Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community, championing our Constitutional Rights, and securing Peace through Strength,” Trump said in a statement. In her new role, Gabbard will be overseeing 18 spy agencies.

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has been named the Trump nominee for U.S. Attorney General. Again, the legacy media immediately pounded him, as he is conservative and a known fighter. He attended William and Mary Law School and will replace Merrick Garland, who has led a crusade against Trump by weaponizing the Justice Department.

Breaking: Tulsi Gabbard endorses Donald Trump

Team America: Sen. Marco Rubio gets officially nominated as Secretary of State

Suzanne Downing
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7
Team America: Sen. Marco Rubio gets officially nominated as Secretary of State

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio got the official nomination from Donald Trump on Wednesday as the next U.S. Secretary of State. His nomination had been leaked out a few days ago, but it was not official until today.

“He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries. I look forward to working with Marco to Make America, and the World, Safe and Great Again!” Trump wrote.

Rubio, who ran against Trump in 2016, was born in Miami in 1971, the son of Cuban immigrants. His father worked as a banquet bartender, and his mother was a hotel maid.

“From an early age, Rubio learned the importance of faith, family, community, and dignified work to the good life,” Trump’s announcement said. “Rubio was drawn to public service in large part because of conversations with his grandfather, who saw his homeland destroyed by communism. After meeting and marrying his wife Jeanette—and earning degrees from the University of Florida and the University of Miami Law School—Rubio served as a city commissioner in West Miami and Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. In 2010, he won a seat in the U.S. Senate.”

Although he must be confirmed by the Senate, that should be a fairly easy process, as Rubio is well-respected among his peers.

He is a decade younger than current Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whose political alliances go back to the Clinton Administration, when he served in senior positions at the State Department.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead new Department of Government Efficiency
Trump names Ratcliffe to CIA, Hegseth to Defense, and Huckabee as ambassador to Israel
Trump names Ratcliffe to CIA, Hegseth to Defense, and Huckabee as ambassador to Israel
Trump names Congressman Waltz as National Security Advisor; Gov. Kristi Noem to head up Homeland Security

Support the work of Must Read Alaska

Suzanne Downing
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Support the work of Must Read Alaska

In 2016, an Alaska domestic violence nonprofit posted an item on social media that classified the slogan “Make America Great Again” as “hate speech,” such as you might hear from the KKK or other white supremacy groups.

Must Read Alaska called out that characterization on these pages. It’s what we do here.

Every day we defend sensible policy and conservative viewpoints from the attacks by the Left.

It’s a lot of work, and the hits from the far left just keep coming. But we’re winning! As this election shows, the mainstream media had the biggest beatdown of all — caught collaborating with leftists one too many times, and the public is fed up. If you’re going to be biased, at least be honest about it — like Must Read Alaska is, telling everyone “we’re conservative here,” at every opportunity.

Many Alaskans — at least 20,000 a day — come by here for news, commentary, and the vibrant forum in the comment section — the best in Alaska. It’s a respite from the woke liberal media that dominates the state, and it has grown more important than ever over the years because of your support and because of the current state of our nation. On our social media accounts, even though the overlords on the dominant “site that shall not be named’ try to keep us down through shadow banning, we’re reaching tens of thousands of Alaskans a day.

Must Read Alaska has exceeded 60 million views, and we have approved over 450,000 comments on stories. The site has endured and fought off brute force attacks — hundreds of thousands of them each year — by bad actors from the Left.

Our fantastic mobile app is used by hundreds of Alaskans — you can download it for free from your phone’s App Store. Just search for Must Read Alaska.

Your help is greatly appreciated in keeping Must Read Alaska alive and well, even as the Left tries to take MRAK down in every way possible. Thank you for supporting this project, dedicated to keeping the media balanced in Alaska. 

Here is the link to support Must Read Alaska, if you are so moved to help out.

Thanks to everyone who already has contributed. You make a huge difference!

Repeal of ranked-choice voting hangs by a thread

Suzanne Downing
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50
Repeal of ranked-choice voting hangs by a thread

After the latest batch of ballots were counted by the Alaska Division of Elections on Tuesday, it still appears that ranked-choice voting may be going away in Alaska. But the margin is very thin, not that different from the vote that installed the messy voting scheme that frustrates voters.

As of Tuesday night, 142,511 Alaskans are in favor of repealing ranked-choice voting, and 139,670 are opposed. The split is along party lines, with Democrats favoring the novel system of choosing political leaders — a system that in Alaska favors Democrats.

Although about 20,000 early and absentee ballots are still to be counted, there’s a drop-off of voting toward the end of the ballot. While 295,806 ballots have been counted so far, some 282,181 people voted on this particular ballot measure, about a 5% drop in the votes on number of ballots received. In the Trump-Harris race, for example, 293,515 votes were cast, more than 11,000 more than were cast in Ballot Measure 2.

The No votes have gained slightly in the latest count released. In the Nov. 8 count, the Yes votes were ahead 50.83%, and have slipped a bit to 50.50%.

Just 2,841 votes separate the Yes and No ballots.

Ranked-choice voting was installed by allies of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who was unable to compete in another Republican primary election after her work to defeat President Donald Trump.

With the use of Outside money from liberal billionaires, the proponents convinced Alaskans they would have more choice in elections. But voters haven’t enjoyed the new scheme and, in fact, elections seem to be less secure, with results not being announced for 15 days after all votes are cast, embarrassing the state, which doesn’t seem to be able to run elections efficiently.

The people who want to retain it — mostly Democrats — have had over $14 million in dark money this cycle to defeat the repeal. They have fought hard, even telling people that if they don’t pass Ballot Measure 2, they won’t be able to have an abortion.

Meanwhile the repeal proponents have had less than $100,000 to work with, and have had to fight off multiple lawsuits and threats from ranked-choice advocates like lawyer Scott Kendall.

Must Read Alaska calls Alaska’s congressional race for Nick Begich

Must Read Alaska calls Alaska’s congressional race for Nick Begich

Suzanne Downing
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Must Read Alaska calls Alaska’s congressional race for Nick Begich

With the Alaska Division of Elections having counted more than 38,000 more votes on Tuesday, there are a few slight changes to note in various Alaska races, specifically the tight race between Rep. Mary Peltola and Nick Begich for Alaska’s one congressional seat. Here are the current numbers from the division on that race, released late Tuesday night:

Congressional race

The data analyst known as @cinyc9 on X/Twitter ran the algorithm on the updated known results of this race. For the final count, it gives Nick Begich a solid win at over 52%, when all the second- and third-place votes are redistributed.

In this raw-data analysis of the ranked-choice process, Begich gained 19,470 votes, and Rep. Mary Peltola gained 21,488 votes. Begich still wins.

With possibly 20,000 more votes yet to be counted, Peltola would have to win by a margin of over 10,000 to overcome Begich’s lead. This is not what the trends are indicating; instead, they show that Begich unseats Peltola in Congress.

The ballots counted Tuesday include a mix of absentee ballots, early voting, and questioned ballots.

The Division of Elections, however, will have the final word since this privately done analysis of the raw data may have errors. The division released the raw data to the public after Must Read Alaska filed a public records request. The division will not run its analysis and announce the final winner until Nov. 20, making Alaska the last state in the nation to announce results.

Assumptions and projections on Begich-Peltola race
Support the work of Must Read Alaska
Breaking: 218? Raw data released by Division of Elections shows Begich will win in after ballots ranked

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead new Department of Government Efficiency

Suzanne Downing
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Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead new Department of Government Efficiency

President-elect Donald Trump has picked business leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead what he calls the Department of Government Efficiency.

Musk, who owns the social media site X.com, and Ramaswamy have been two highly influential people associated with Trump’s third run for office. They will assist Trump in cutting bureaucracy, slashing unneeded regulation, and eliminating government waste.

“This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people,” Musk said.

“All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency. Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know! We will also have a leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars. This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining,” Musk wrote on X.

“It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time. Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of ‘DOGE’ for a very long tie. To drive this kind of drastic change, the Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create and entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before,” Trump said.

“I look forward to Elon and Vivek making changes to the Federal Bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency and, at the same time, making life better for all Americans. Importantly, we will drive out the massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual $6.5 Trillion Dollars of Government Spending. They will work together to liberate our Economy, and make the U.S. Government accountable to ‘WE THE PEOPLE.’ Their work will conclude no later than July 4, 2026 – A smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence. I am confident they will succeed!” Trump said.

Trump names Ratcliffe to CIA, Hegseth to Defense, and Huckabee as ambassador to Israel

Suzanne Downing
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24
Trump names Ratcliffe to CIA, Hegseth to Defense, and Huckabee as ambassador to Israel

John Ratcliffe will head up the Central Intelligence Agency in the Trump Administration, the president-elect announced Tuesday. Ratcliffe is a former Texas congressman and former Director of National Intelligence.

“When 51 intelligence officials were lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop, there was one, John Ratcliffe, telling the truth to the American People,” Trump said in a statement.

Ratcliffe is a co-chair of the Center for American Security at the America First Institute. He was the sixth director of National Intelligence under President Donald Trump and was the principal intelligence advisor to President Trump.

Ratcliffe successfully deployed covert and clandestine intelligence assets to remove numerous designated terrorist leaders from the around the world and shift the U.S. intelligence community priorities to better position the U.S. for success in the great power competition with China. He designated space as a priority intelligence domain by adding the U.S. Space Force as a member of the intelligence community.

In recognition of his national security achievements, President Trump awarded Ratcliffe the National Security Medal, the nation’s highest honor for distinguished achievement in the field of intelligence and national security.

Ratcliffe served in Congress for over five years as the U.S. representative for the 4th Congressional District of Texas, was a leading policymaker on national security issues as a member of the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees and was Cybersecurity chairman on the Homeland Security Committee. He lives in Heath, Texas, where he was mayor for eight years.

Pete Hegseth was nominated to run the Department of Defense.

“I am honored to announce that I have nominated Pete Hegseth to serve in my Cabinet as The Secretary of Defense. Pete has spent his entire life as a Warrior for the Troops, and for the Country. Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First,” Trump said. Hegseth has been cohosting Fox & Friends Weekend at Fox News, and has been a regular contributor since 2014.

Donald Trump also named former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as the incoming ambassador to Israel.

Other appointments induce William Joseph McGinley, who will serve as White House counsel and help Trump advance his America First agenda and will right against the weaponization of law enforcement. McGinley served in the first Trump Administration as White House Cabinet Secretary.

Earlier in the day, he announced that Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida will be national security adviser. Rep. Elise Stefanik will be the ambassador to the United Nations and South Dakota Gov. Kristie Noem will lead the Department of Homeland Security.

Tom Homan is the president-elect’s new border czar.

Change: Trump appoints new EPA administrator
Trump names Congressman Waltz as National Security Advisor; Gov. Kristi Noem to head up Homeland Security

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