The winner of Alaska’s presidential election is none other than former president Donald Trump. As Alaska election results show three rural precincts, preliminary results indicate that voters there had distinct candidate preferences. Cornel West of the Aurora Party leads Aniak after receiving 50.5% of the first-choice votes cast. According to Napakiak’s preliminary findings, Randall Terry, a Constitution Party anti-abortion campaigner, received 51.5% of the vote.
Meanwhile, in Kipnuk, West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are tied, each securing 50 out of 113 votes tallied so far. According to a local poll worker, one precinct’s posted results might include a reporting error. These are the only precincts in Alaska where Donald Trump and Kamala Harris do not lead. All precincts had reported partial results by Friday, and officials will soon count more absentee and early ballots.
With 55.5% of the early ballots, Trump leads the state, while Harris has 40.4%. West and Kennedy are behind by fewer than 0.4% and 1.7% respectively. The Division of Elections
Director Carol Beecher emphasized that the results are not official and may alter after additional information for the Alaska election results becomes available.
Local poll workers in rural communities such as Aniak, Napakiak, and Kipnuk manually count the ballots and relay initial results to election officials by phone. Then the poll worker mail the ballots for official tabulation. Aniak’s city clerk, Morgan Simeon, expressed frustration, saying posted numbers seemed incorrect. According to Simeon, Harris had more support than shown in the initial count.
A voter in Kipnuk favored Kennedy because they knew his name, disliked Trump, and had never heard of Harris. Kennedy stayed on Alaska’s ballot after leaving the presidential race to support Trump. In these places, third-party candidates showed surprisingly solid overall performance. Michelle Sparck, who directs Get Out the Native Vote, commented on the peculiarities of voting in remote Alaska and stated that there are no allegations of fraud.
This news was originally published by Anchorage Daily News.
