Division of Elections completes absentee ballot count

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — It's been more than two weeks since the primary election, and Division of Elections volunteers finished a count of absentee and questioned votes with the last 170 ballots Wednesday.

There were about 5,000 questioned ballots and 9,105 absentee ballots from the Aug. 24 primary, which were counter-reviewed at the Anchorage office.

Division of Elections officials say those numbers are similar to previous elections, not counting the 2008 presidential election.

Volunteers with the Absentee Review Board spent about two hours Wednesday afternoon hand-tallying the ballots.

In the final primary results, Republican U.S. Senate challenger Joe Miller had 55,847 votes and 50.92 percent of the vote, while incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski pulled in 53,834 votes for 49.08 percent of the vote.

In the Republican race for governor, Gov. Sean Parnell received 54,090 votes and just over 50 percent of the vote, while Bill Walker had 35,715 votes with about 33 percent of the vote and Ralph Samuels received 15,370 votes and 14 percent of the vote.

In the Democratic primary, gubernatorial nominee Ethan Berkowitz received 22,578 votes and defeated Hollis French, who had 18,012 votes.

“One person is the actual reader, because you're reading off the ballot, then one observes the reader,” said Region II election supervisor Julie Husmann. “Then there are two copies, a duplicate and an original, as far as where they write the tally marks.”

The Republican primary for House District 18 is especially close, with Dan Saddler receiving 415 votes versus incumbent Bill Cook’s 411 votes -- in a race Cook was leading by three votes last week. Dan Kendall received 332 votes.

The winner of that primary will face Democratic candidate Martin Lindeke, who ran unopposed.

Contact Lori Tipton at ltipton@ktuu.com