Alaska election officials said the first Alaska Election Results will be posted online between 8:45 and 9 p.m. Alaska Time on Election Night, giving voters and campaigns an early look at a count that will still be far from finished.
Polls open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and officials said the results will continue to roll out late into the night and early morning hours. The first batch will include ballots cast at the polls that day, early votes cast before Friday and some absentee ballots.
The schedule matters because Alaska usually does not finish counting quickly. Steve Kirch, a Division of Elections spokesperson, said updated data will be released on Nov. 10, Nov. 13 and Nov. 18. The first scheduled update is expected to capture almost all of the early vote plus a large batch of absentee ballots, mostly from off the road system. By the next update, nearly all ballots should be counted, with the last remaining votes folded into the final unofficial update on Nov. 18.
That slow pace can make Election Night feel more certain than it really is. Historical trends suggest the first returns represent around 70% of the overall vote, and candidates who lead when the polls close can still lose after later ballots are added. Burke Croft said Alaska’s elections are defined by “the state’s size and the unique logistical challenges that come with that,” and he noted that past races have seen shifts of “four or so points.”
Ranked choice voting may add another layer in any race where no candidate tops 50%, but the Division of Elections will not officially tabulate those choices until Nov. 18. Alaska law also allows overseas absentee ballots to arrive as many as 15 days after Election Day, one reason the count stretches well beyond Tuesday night. In 131 of the state’s more than 400 precincts, election workers count ballots by hand and read the results over the phone to regional offices, and Kirch said the data requires specialized software to read.
The practical takeaway is simple: the first Alaska Election Results will arrive within hours, but they will not be the final word. The real test will come on Nov. 10 and Nov. 13, when the count tightens, and again on Nov. 18, when the final unofficial update and ranked-choice tabulation are due before certification on Nov. 25.
