Alaska Results Won’t Be Decided for Two Weeks Under ‘Ranked Choice’

Results in Alaska’s congressional elections will not be decided until November 23 — two weeks after Election Day — thanks to the state’s new ranked-choice voting system, which delays the tabulation of second- and third-choice selections.

As of Wednesday morning, challenger Kelly Tshibaka (R) held a narrow lead over incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). But Tshibaka’s 44% was not enough to win an outright majority in the four-candidate race. If Murkowski wins enough second-choice votes — including from the 9.5% of voters who chose the lone Democrat in the race — then she will win and retain her Senate seat.

Likewise in the race for the state’s at-large congressional district. Incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK), who took office in a special election earlier this year that was the first to feature the ranked-choice system, only won 47% of first-choice votes. Republican Sarah Palin finished second. The total Republican vote was more than a majority, but ranked-choice meant that Palin split the Republican vote with another GOP candidate, Nick Begich, and likely means that a Democrat will continue to represent a largely conservative state in the U.S. House.

Second and third choices will only be tabulated Nov. 23.

Murkowski, who once retained her seat through a write-in vote campaign after losing the Republican primary in 2010, is seen as a primary driver of, and beneficiary of, the ranked-choice system.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.