Wrangell’s strong support for Republican Jeremy Bynum helped push him over the 50% threshold as the apparent winner for the state House seat to represent Wrangell, Ketchikan and Metlakatla.
As of early Wednesday morning, across the district, Bynum had 3,153 votes, 51.57%, to Agnes Moran’s 1,503 votes, 24.58%, and Grant EchoHawk’s 1,448, 23.68%.
Though there are still more absentee and early votes left to count, it does not appear they would change the outcome of the race.
In Wrangell, Bynum had 424 to EchoHawk’s 144 and Moran’s 89.
Bynum, a former Ketchikan Gateway Borough assembly member, will take over the seat held by 10-year incumbent Rep. Dan Ortiz, who cited health reasons in declining to seek reelection.
In statewide results from Tuesday’s election, Republican Nick Begich held a solid lead over incumbent Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola in the race for Alaska’s one U.S. House seat, though he was short of the 50%-plus-one needed to win.
Thousands more early ballots and mail-in absentee ballots remained to be counted as of Wednesday morning, which could push Begich over the 50% threshold.
With 375 of 403 precincts reported, Begich had 124,632 votes, 49.66%, to 113,612, 45.27%, for Peltola, according to state Division of Elections numbers released at 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Voters cast more than 12,000 ballots for two fringe candidates.
If neither Begich nor Peltola exceeds 50% after all the ballots are tallied, Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system would determine the winner. Anyone who voted for the last-place finisher in the race will have their votes redistributed to their second choice and, if needed, it would work the same for anyone who voted for the third-place finisher.
Begich easily carried Wrangell in the election, receiving 383 votes to 233 for Peltola.
Wrangell voted even more overwhelmingly for former president Donald Trump against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, 451-200. Trump, who won the national election, was ahead of Harris in Alaska 140,936 to 102,318 as of Wednesday morning’s count from the state Division of Elections.
Wrangell saw a record turnout of early voters in the election, with 343 people walking into City Hall through Monday, Nov. 4, to cast their ballots in advance of election day on Tuesday at the Nolan Center.
The pace was busy on election day too, with 701 voters coming to the polling station, putting the total votes cast in Wrangell at 1,044, with an unknown number of final mail-in ballots still possible. It's the highest turnout in years.
In addition to voting for president, the U.S. House and state legislative seats, Alaskans voted on two ballot propositions. The measure to repeal ranked-choice voting and go back to political party primaries was ahead as of Wednesday morning, 50.96% to 49.04%, with about 4,700 votes separating the two sides.
Final absentee and early ballots could change the outcome.
Wrangell voted 399-252 to repeal ranked-choice voting.
Alaskans approved the other ballot measure to boost the state’s minimum wage and require employers to pay sick leave. The preliminary tally was 56.51% to 43.49%.
Wrangell voted for the measure by a tight margin, 337-310.
Among state legislative races across Alaska, no candidate held more than 50% of the vote in half a dozen of the districts as of Wednesday morning, likely pushing those seats into the ranked-choice system after the final absentee and early votes are counted.
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