Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy says the state’s voting process is “very confusing” and cautions that the close Senate contest between Democratic nominee Mary Peltola and Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan may not be settled for days or even weeks.
“It’s very close, the numbers,” Dunleavy said Sunday on WABC Radio’s “The Cats Roundtable.” He pointed to Nov. 13 and Nov. 18 as key dates, when large batches of ballots are expected to be counted.
“It’s a slow system up here in Alaska,” he said, adding that the state has “quite an issue.” The next major batch of votes, he said, should help show who is ahead.
Peltola has 48.17% of the vote and leads Sullivan by 637 votes. Alaska has not released new vote totals in several days. If no candidate receives at least 50% of the first-choice votes by Nov. 25, the contest will proceed through ranked-choice rounds using voters’ second and third preferences.
Voters were also asked whether to repeal the ranked-choice system, which was adopted only a few years ago. Dunleavy called the process “very confusing,” saying the repeal question had added to the uncertainty.
Opponents of repeal currently lead by a narrow margin, with 51.85% of the vote. That measure, too, remains too close to call more than a week after Election Day.
“We’re still in the process of bringing in votes and counting votes,” Dunleavy said. He added that investigations are underway into possible wrongdoing, including whether anyone misrepresented their intentions about how a candidate’s name should appear on the ballot.
Dunleavy criticized what has been called the “Decoy Dan” scheme, involving Daniel J. Sullivan, who was placed on the ballot in what was alleged to be an effort to draw votes away from the Republican senator. The governor said another man, Daniel S. Sullivan, had also allegedly tried to run in the general election using the incumbent’s middle initial rather than his own.
Dunleavy said the state Division of Elections investigated whether the candidacy was legitimate and initially decided not to put the candidate on the ballot. A court challenge followed, and the Alaska Supreme Court ultimately ruled that he had to be included.
After a New York Times report raised questions about whether people connected to Peltola’s campaign knew about the alleged scheme, Dunleavy said he reopened the investigation.
“When The New York Times article came out, we already knew a lot of what was happening there, but there were more revelations,” he said. He added that Alaska launched another investigation and that the Justice Department did as well, leaving investigations underway during the election.
