Alaska ballot data reveals surprising voter rankings in key races

Alaska's election results remain uncalled days after the midterms, with officials set to release more votes Monday and Tuesday for key races including Congress and governor. The Division of Elections released a partial "cast vote record" Wednesday covering roughly 204,000 scanned ballots, excluding rural hand-counted precincts and tens of thousands of early and absentee votes. The incomplete data reveals that Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola's supporters heavily ranked Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. second, with nearly 30,000 doing so, while only about 3,000 of Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan's voters did the same. In the governor's race, over half of Republican-first voters ranked all three GOP candidates, though this may not be enough to overcome Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins. The data also shows unpredictable voter behavior, such as one Willow voter ranking Republican Gerald Heikes first, Peltola second, and the senator third. Additionally, 58% of voters favoring ranked choice repeal ranked three or more candidates in the governor's race, compared to 22% of those supporting the system.