Alaska Division of Elections to announce results of state's first ranked choice voting election for U.S. House seat

The Alaska Division of Elections is set to announce the unofficial winner of its first-ever ranked choice voting election on August 31, 2022. The special election to fill the late Congressman Don Young's U.S. House seat features Democrat Mary Peltola, who leads in first-choice votes, and Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich III. Tabulation software will resolve the race by redistributing lower-ranked votes, with official certification targeted for September 2, 2022.

Claims

• ▪Ballot Measure 2 mandates that all candidates run in a single primary, with the top four advancing to a ranked choice general election.
• ▪In November 2020, Alaskans approved Ballot Measure 2 by a narrow margin to establish a new election system.
• ▪Approximately 192,000 ballots were cast in the August 16, 2022, special election, representing about one in three registered voters.
• ▪The August 16, 2022, special election is Alaska's first ranked choice election and will decide who represents the state in the U.S. House of Representatives for four months.
• ▪In 131 polling stations, mostly in rural Alaska, ballots were hand-counted locally and mailed to Juneau for scanning.
• ▪In 270 of Alaska's 401 polling stations, ballots were scanned locally and results were transmitted digitally to Juneau.
• ▪The Alaska Division of Elections intends to certify the election results by September 2, 2022.
• ▪The Alaska Division of Elections will announce the unofficial winner of the special election to replace Congressman Don Young on August 31, 2022, at 4 p.m.
• ▪As of August 30, 2022, ballots from 10 precincts had not yet arrived in Juneau due to slow mail delivery.
• ▪Candidates have until September 7, 2022, to request a recount, which is state-funded if the margin is within 0.5% of all ballots cast.
• ▪If no candidate wins over 50% of first-choice votes, the lowest-ranked candidates are systematically eliminated and their votes redistributed to voters' next choices.
• ▪The special election candidates are Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich III, and Democrat Mary Peltola.
• ▪As of August 30, 2022, Mary Peltola led in first-choice votes, followed by Sarah Palin, Nick Begich III, and write-in candidates.
• ▪The death of Congressman Don Young in March 2022 compressed the planned two-year implementation timeline for Ballot Measure 2 by three months.

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