Photo: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP / Getty Images
Democratic candidate Mary Peltola is leading against Republican Senator Dan Sullivan in the Alaska Senate race, according to the latest vote count. As of Tuesday (November 10), Peltola has widened her lead to 4,250 votes, with 118,926 first-choice votes, or 49% of the total, compared to Sullivan's 114,676 votes, or 47.2%, as reported by the Anchorage Daily News.
The race remains tight, with tens of thousands of early and absentee ballots still to be counted. The final winner may not be known until November 18, when the last ballots are scheduled for counting. The election results are expected to be certified on November 25.
The Alaska Senate race is one of the last congressional contests to be decided in the U.S. this year. The state employs a ranked-choice voting system, which could come into play if neither candidate secures more than 50% of the vote. In such a case, the candidate with the fewest votes would be eliminated, and their votes redistributed based on voters' next preferences.
According to NBC News, the contest has shifted 15.29 points toward Democrats compared to the 2024 presidential election. Both campaigns have expressed confidence in their paths to victory, with Peltola's team anticipating that the remaining ballots will favor her.
The ranked-choice voting system could also see votes from other candidates, such as Gerald Heikes and Dan J. Sullivan (a namesake challenger), redistributed if neither Peltola nor Sullivan reaches the 50% threshold by November 18.