With over 80% of votes counted, Alaska’s House race has yet to be called in favor of Democrat Mary Peltola — the incumbent candidate that is ahead by over 20 percentage points, per The New York Times.
Alaska’s former governor, Sarah Palin, trails behind at 26.8% and Republican Nick Begich follows in third place, with 24.1% of the vote, per The New York Times. So, with such an impressive lead, why hasn’t Alaska already given the House seat to Peltola?
Alaska does things differently. According to the Alaska Division of Elections, the state uses a ranked choice voting system. On Alaska ballots, residents vote by ranking the candidates in order of preference. The votes are then counted in rounds.
During the first round, only voters’ No. 1 preference on each ballot is counted. For a candidate to win during Round 1, they must win 50% of the votes. With 47.1% of the vote, Peltola is just short of the 50% required to win.
According to The Hill, early votes submitted between the Friday before the election and Election Day must be given a full week to get counted after the election. Also, absentee votes start getting counted a week after the election, and are given 15 days to get counted. Alaska has until Nov. 23 to finish counting votes.
With Peltola on the brink of a win, a second round may be prevented after all the votes are counted.
Once all the votes are counted, if Peltola has not reached 50%, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. If you voted for the eliminated candidate, your vote goes to your second-choice candidate.