Recounts Don’t Change Results in Nov. Election

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Category: News

Created on Thursday, 12 December 2024 15:29

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By ANDREW KITCHENMAN
Alaska Beacon
    A recount of last month’s election concluded Wednesday without finding any change to the defeat of a ballot measure that aimed to repeal Alaska’s open primary and ranked choice voting system.
    In addition, the outcome of a state House district east of Wasilla — the only legislative race subject to a recount — was unchanged. Republican Elexie Moore defeated fellow Republican Steve Menard by nine votes after ranked choice tabulation, three fewer votes than her margin in the certified results.
    While Republican supporters of the ballot measure asked for the recount, the margin of its defeat actually grew by six votes, from 737 more no votes in the results certified on Nov. 30 to a 743-vote margin after the recount. While the recount found 106 more votes in favor of the election system repeal, there were 112 more votes against it.
    The state government covers the cost of recounts for elections in which the election is within a half-percent of votes cast. In the case of the ballot measure, the certified vote margin was only 2.3 tenths of a percent of more than 320,000 votes cast.
    The election outcome means that the 2026 elections will be third in Alaska with open primaries and ranked choice general elections. Opponents of the ballot measure focused on how the open primaries allow any Alaskan to vote for any primary candidate, regardless of their affiliation. Ballot measure supporters focused on the complexity of ranked choice voting.
    In the system, if no candidate is the first preference of a majority of voters, people who voted for trailing candidates will have their votes redistributed to their lower preferences.
    For example, the recount found that Moore finished first in her House district in first-preference votes, with 2,929, followed by Menard with 2,790 and third-place Republican Jessica Wright, with 2,014. Since none received a majority of the votes, the votes for Wright were redistributed, with 314 going to Moore, 444 to Menard and 1,255 ballots going to neither finalist.
    That third category is described as “exhausted,” because the voters did not list a second choice. One Wright voter’s ballot was not redistributed because they had voted for too many candidates, known as an “overvote.”
    Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who oversees the state Division of Elections, praised the division staff’s work on the recount.
    “This outcome reaffirms the integrity of our electoral system and reflects the will of the majority of Alaskan voters,” she said in a news release.
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