A strong turnout of voters in Senate District F, the conservative fortress of Chugiak-Palmer-Mat-Su, swept Sen. Shelley Hughes to victory with more votes than were received by any other state senator in the recent General election.
Although absentee and some early votes are yet to be counted, the turnout in District F is already nearly 41 percent.
Hughes received 10,121 votes so far — decidedly more votes than even Sen. Tom Begich, who was unopposed in his bid for reelection in Senate District J and won 4,339 votes. Sen. Bert Stedman in Senate District R was also unopposed, and received 7,422 votes.
Hughes’ popularity was matched by House members in the district. District 11’s Rep. DeLena Johnson won 5,207 votes and District 12’s Rep. Cathy Tilton, whose vote total eclipsed all other House candidates in 2020 — 5,752.
What makes Sen. Hughes’ vote totals more remarkable is that she had two opponents on the ballot — Jim Cooper, the Democrat and former mayor of Palmer, and Gavin Christiansen, the Libertarian (who is now in jail awaiting trial for murder.) Cooper came away with 2,271 votes and 680 people cast their ballots for Christiansen.
Even with two opponents, however, Hughes won 77.31 percent of the vote.
Hughes said that after the election she received notes from a couple of Democrats saying she had earned their vote because she is a consensus builder and that although they had voted Democrat in all other races, they voted for her because of that.
The numbers bear that out. The top vote-getter in her Senate district, she received slightly more votes than even President Trump, who received 10,110 votes (of votes counted so far).
In fact, Hughes has received more votes in her district than Trump won in any Senate district in Alaska, so far; over 40 percent of the ballots are yet to be counted statewide.
Senate District F also has the distinction, for now, of having the highest voter turnout of any Senate district in Alaska.
Statewide, 192,918 of 595,647 registered voters have had their ballots counted, a statewide turnout of 32.39 percent.
In District 11-F, another 849 early votes and 2,035 absentees remain to be counted, and in District 12-F, 756 early votes and 2,188 absentees are yet to be counted. These numbers may change as more absentee ballots trickle in.
Statewide, 36,268 of 53,231 early votes are already counted; 16,963 are yet to be counted.
The rest of the votes — absentees and some early votes — will be counted next week by the Division of Elections.
Too bad the election is rigged. Much as I like Shelley Hughes, when they count the mail in ballots, she too is bound to lose. We are all in for a surprise on Nov. 10, when we find out that we have been duped as well. Just ask Alan Gross, who is sure of it.
There are not that many votes still out there for the District the only way that could happen is fraudulent means.
A ballot postmarked in rural New England on Monday is unlikely to be in a DOE office on Friday. A ballot postmarked in a Arctic village on Tuesday is definitely unlikely to be in Anchorage on Friday. State law requires these ballots to be in DOE hands 10 days after Election Day. This has been Alaska Election Law for decades.
A ballot postmarked in Northern Europe has 15 days to arrive at a DOE office. Again that has been the state law for decades.
A ballot airmailed from the Middle East will not make it to the DOE in the allowed 15 days.
The State Law and its application has worked for decades. Just watch!
Ballots had to be postmarked 3 Nov so if you think they will be sending additional Ballots in for an Election in Palmer/Chugiak District from outside the District will not be counted.
Ballots are send to military and other Alaskans around the world. These voters must get their ballot in the mail with a November 3 or earlier post mark.
if the ballot is mailed in the US, it has 10 days to get to the Division of Elections. If the ballot is mailed from outside of US, the ballot has 15 days to get to the DOE to be fully acceptable.
You wish! 🙂
Shelley Hughes for Senate President
Why is this a story?
Both House members in Sen. Hughes’ district, DeLena Johnson and Cathy Tilton, received more votes than she did.
And it’s very premature to be talking about who the top vote getters are with 40% of the ballots outstanding…
Just like Chugiak Voter, I too am all for Shelley to be the next Senate President.
I know Pete wants it, but no way can he say he has such a majority and mandate like Shelley. Pete barely won his last election.
My understanding is that those that get such strong votes and mandates by the voters end up in leadership.
Thus that leaves out every other Republican (including RINO).
Like with Shelley, I am strongly supporting Cathy Tilton as Speaker of the House. Her vote support is way above that of Lance Pruitt. Lance is a nice guy but not nearly as strong as Cathy!
Agree with Cathy Tilton being the Speaker of the House. Get rid of Edgmon; he is a disgrace and a political hack.
Comments are closed.