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It's morning in America -- again
Trump wins both popular and electoral college vote. Nick Begich is still ahead of Mary Peltola. Alaska's repeal of ranked choice voting has slight lead.
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Question of the week
In 2022, the Division of Elections didn’t release all the information from ballots right away, only releasing the “first choices” of the final four. There is no law preventing the Division from showing all the second and third choices at the same time, which would allow citizens to have a better idea about who was the actual winner before the 15-day delay.
Our question of the week is:
Tuesday was a huge day for America
America gave a decisive win to Donald Trump, who got 277 electoral college votes, seven more than he needed to win the presidency. The stock market responded with a 1,300-point bounce. It was 2016 all over again.
Chart of the day
Here’s something to ponder this morning as you reflect on 2024 vs. 2020 and wonder again whether the election was stolen four years ago:
In Alaska, Trump is at over 55% of the vote, but there are still a few ballots to be counted. People who voted Thursday through Monday and those who mailed their ballots in last week are yet to be counted.
That said, one of the most important ballot measures in the country was the repeal of ranked-choice voting.
It looks like Ballot Measure 2 may be approved by voters. The “Yes on 2” has about a 4,000-vote lead in spite of facing over $13 million in Outside dark money spending, vs. the few thousand dollars that the Yes on 2 side had to make its case to voters.
What we don’t know is how much impact that dark money had on the mailed-in ballots that have yet to be counted.
We saw that the Vote No side would stop at nothing. They threatened everyone with lawsuits, tying up the Yes on 2 side’s small cash accounts. They litigated all the way to the fall of this year to stop the ballot measure. Last week they were even telling voters that they should keep ranked-choice voting in order to preserve abortion. Here is the current situation with repealing ranked-choice voting:
Ranked-choice failed nationally
Ranked choice failed in the following states:
Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and South Dakota.
Washington, D.C. and Missouri passed ranked-choice voting.
Minimum wage raised in Alaska
The unions had a big win last night with minimum wage being raised by voters. This means they all get a raise too, because their wages are tied to the minimum wage and will go up automatically. Unions drive inflation.
Did Nick Begich win for Congress?
The margin is narrow but is exactly what polling predicted. With the crazy ranked-choice voting system, we may not know for sure for two weeks. For now, he is leading and Peltola’s voters were not enthused.
It looks like the Republicans will lose the U.S. House by two or win by one — that will be Nick’s seat. The nation, once again due to Alaska’s ranked choice voting, has to wait for Alaska for two weeks.
Nick Begich is on course to win.
Here is the 3 a.m. update from the Division of Elections
Note that when it says 93% of precincts counted, this does not include all those weekend votes or votes that were in the mail from out of state or overseas. I’ll be looking at those numbers later today.
Chris Constant, meltdown
The Alaska House is a question mark
It’s unclear if the Alaska House of Representatives will be more cohesive with a Republican majority or will be just as difficult as it has been.
On the one hand, it appears that the most difficult Republican member, Rep. David Eastman, has lost to Republican Jubilee Underwood in Wasilla. That helps the Republican majority.
On the other hand, Rep. Craig Johnson lost to a false-flag Republican Chuck Kopp, who will probably try to break up the Republican majority.
In Fairbanks, Republican Bart LeBon was not able to unseat Democrat Maxine Dibert, but in Ketchikan, Jeremy Bynum has won for the Republicans.
There’s a possible win for Republican David Nelson in north Anchorage District 18, which again, helps the Republican majority.
Check back with Must Read Alaska online as we pore through the results today.
This day in history
November 6, 1860, Americans elected Abraham Lincoln, whose victory led to the secession of Southern states and the Civil War that lasted until 1865 and ended slavery in the U.S. Lincoln was the first Republican president.
Alaska oil: $74.24
Henry Hub gas: $2.78
Alaska North Slope Production: 488.350
Permanent Fund (principal and earnings reserve): $80,901,900,000
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It is a great day in the Nation for the change in administration. It is also hopeful that ballot measure 2 is leading but because of Division of Election policy it may be much later for the AK results.
When my wife a I in person early voted at the May-Su Regional Elections Office last week a notice posted on the wall stated that none of the early votes would be counted until November 6, the day after the election. This seems counter productive because we all voted on machine tabulated ballots that could have been dallied daily and added to the totals voted on Election Day. With this policy in place all these ballots will be run through tabulating machines or hand counted after Election Day when they will be also counting the pile of mail in and questioned ballots. This just delays the voters having a more accurate count of the votes on Election Day. The totals of all the votes are inputed into the Division of Elections computers for security and not released to the public until the Division releases them. The Division should change this delay process concerning tabulation of in person pre-voting and if mail ballots are also held change that also. The public deserves the most accurate tally on Election Day even if it is not official for over two weeks later. It would also prevent someone from being allowed to vote twice if the State run voter information was accurate when provided to the polling location workers checking IDS and giving out ballots. Mailing ballots used to be identified in red on the computer lists poll workers used and if it laptops using the main system it would be more accurate. Although I believe the fact we voted was reflected in the elections database just not our votes.