This is a developing story, and it will be updated.
State Rep. Andi Story, D-Juneau, has a seemingly decisive lead over challenger Ed King, according to the most recent results released by the Alaska Division of Elections. While still more votes remain to be counted and no results are official until the DOE certifies results, Story’s lead over King seems to be holding.
In an email, King himself agreed.
“Clearly, the numbers show that I won’t be elected to represent Juneau. That’s disappointing, but it’s what the people decided,” King said. “I’m grateful for the thousands of voters that did support my candidacy and I regret letting them down. At this point, there is nothing I can do but wish Andi luck as she takes on the unenviable tasks at hand.”
According to results posted by DOE Tuesday, Story led King in the District 34 race 5,879 to 3,544, or 62.09% to 37.43%.
While speaking to the Empire Wednesday, Story thanked King for running and creating a discussion around critical issues.
“I know, going forward, we’re challenging times, but I’m just going to be hearing all ideas from people in the Valley. I think together we’re going to have to do a lot of advocacy, protecting our core services, getting our economy going, but we’ve got to get through COVID,” she said.
[Senate race called for Sullivan]
Rep. Sara Hannan, D-Juneau, ran unopposed for her second term representing downtown Juneau, Douglas, Haines, Skagway, Gustavus and Klukwan.
Clear results have been slow to develop since state law says DOE must wait a week following the election before it can begin counting alternative ways of voting, mostly mail-in ballots but also certain types of in-person ballots. Tuesday evening, the state began releasing updated results and said in a statement Wednesday more counting will take place.
The Associated Press declared victory Wednesday for Alaska’s two incumbent Republicans, Rep. Don Young, who’ll be serving his 25th term in Congress and Sen. Dan Sullivan, who’ll serve his second, but the challengers weren’t ready to give up yet.
“With over 85,000 votes left to be counted and a 42,000 vote deficit to make up, the path to victory is narrow but still possible,” Galvin’s communications director, Bridget Galvin, said in a statement. “We will continue to watch the vote count with hope and patience.”
The Gross campaign did not immediately respond to request for commen, but campaign manager David Keith told the AP they would assess the situation as more votes are counted.
Currently, unofficials results show no votes with leads in both Alaska’s ballot measures, an oil tax increase and an election reform package, but the elections measure has gained ground as more votes are counted.
Measure 1, commonly known as the “Fair Share Act,” was on track to be defeated with a votes leaning toward no 154,490-100,011, or 60.70% to 39.30%.
Measure 2, a package of election reforms including increased financial disclosures, open primaries and ranked-choice voting, gained ground in Tuesday’s updated results. No votes had a 52.49% share of the votes Tuesday, down from roughly 55% on Election Day.
According to DOE’s Tuesday unofficial results votes against Measure 2 were 133,264-120,369, or 52.49% to 47.51%.
No results are official until certified by the state.
• Contact reporter Peter Segall at psegall@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @SegallJnuEmpire.
