Peltola's Senate lead grows to 4,250 as Alaska counts more ballots

Democrat Mary Peltola pulled further ahead of Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska's U.S. Senate race Tuesday, as the state added about 24,600 more ballots to its count.

Peltola now leads by 4,250 votes, up from about 2,500 on Monday, according to the Division of Elections' latest results. She has 48.8% to Sullivan's 47.0%. If no one tops 50% once all the ballots are in, the race will be decided in a ranked-choice count on Nov. 18.

Most of the new ballots were early votes. The rest were about 5,600 absentee ballots and 1,500 questioned ballots, cast by voters whose eligibility had to be confirmed first. Peltola won about 52% of the new Senate votes.

In the governor's race, Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins' ticket has 49.7%, just short of the majority that would win the race outright without a ranked-choice count. On the ballots counted so far, he's 621 votes shy. Republican Bernadette Wilson's ticket is second with 28.7%.

Republican Rep. Nick Begich still leads nonpartisan Bill Hill in the U.S. House race, 48.8% to 40.9%, a gap of about 19,100 votes. Begich is also short of a majority.

Ballot Measure 2, which would repeal Alaska's open primaries and ranked-choice general elections, is still trailing. "No" leads 52.6% to 47.4%, and the gap grew to nearly 12,000 votes. If that holds, Alaska would keep its current system.

Ballot Measure 3, which would spell out in law that voters must be U.S. citizens, something Alaska already requires, has 69.1% "Yes." Supreme Court Justice Jude Pate has 59% "Yes" in his retention vote.

About 42,000 ballots the state has received aren't in the results yet, by Alaska News' count from the division's ballot statistics. Most are absentee ballots, and some may be rejected. Absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day can still arrive through Friday, or through Nov. 18 from overseas.

The state aims to certify the results Nov. 25.