Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, holds a substantial margin over his Democratic competitor, but Alaska’s unique electoral system has made the state an outlier in the amount of time it took to process ballots.
With 58% of precincts reporting, the right-leaning state is favoring Sullivan over Democrat Al Gross by roughly 60,000 votes, likely instilling Republicans’ confidence that they can maintain control of the Senate next year. The GOP clinched a slight plurality — 49-48 — on Tuesday when Democrat Cal Cunningham conceded to North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis.
Each party needs to reach 51 seats to gain a majority, making the remaining races even more critical to the balance of power. Even if Sullivan wins though, Democrats could reach pick up Senate seats in the two Georgia runoff elections set for January.
Fox News has already called the White House for Democrats while the party is also leading in the House with a projected 215 seats compared to Republicans’ 201.
DEMS HAVE YET TO PICK UP A SINGLE STATE LEGISLATIVE CHAMBER WHILE GOP FLIPS 2
Gross said last week that he thought he would win “once every vote has been counted in the state.” Meanwhile, Sullivan campaign manager Matt Shuckerow has argued that Gross had “no realistic path” to victory.
Officials in the state are able to count absentee ballots that arrive within 10 days of the election provided that they’re post-marked on Election Day. That deadline extends to 15 days for voters sending their ballots from out of state.
According to the Associated Press, Alaska election officials planned to begin counting more than 155,000 absentee and other ballots Tuesday.
Some have questioned or criticized the lag, citing a provision of state law that says the counting of reviewed absentee ballots should begin the night of the election. But Maria Bahr, an Alaska Department of Law spokesperson, said absentee ballots are not deemed eligible for counting until voter histories have been run to guard against any possible duplicate votes.
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The process involves going through precinct registers, which election officials were still receiving Monday, Division of Elections spokesperson Tiffany Montemayor said.
This Friday, Nov. 13, is the deadline for the division to receive ballots that were postmarked within the U.S. Nov. 18 is the deadline to receive absentees postmarked outside the U.S.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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