Peltola extends lead over Sullivan in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race as ballot-counting continues

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola extended her lead over incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan in an updated vote total published Monday by the Alaska Division of Elections. While Peltola has had more first-choice votes since Election Day, preliminary calculations by the Alaska Beacon have shown Sullivan leading when the results of the state’s ranked choice runoff are considered. But on Monday, Peltola gained enough first-choice votes to outweigh Sullivan’s runoff advantage. As of 4 p.m., she led Sullivan by 2,517 votes out of 219,342 cast. Republican candidate Gerald Heikes and independent Dan J. Sullivan were a distant third and fourth, respectively. Under Alaska’s election system, if one candidate in a race has more than 50% of the first-choice votes, they win. If no candidate does, a ranked choice runoff is used to decide the winner.

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