Mike Dunleavy won re-election as governor of Alaska.
Alaska’s midterm elections were the talk of the town well beyond the borders of the state this year, with the passing of Don Young in March leaving open the state’s only U.S. House seat.
The nation was watching to see if Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola would be able to retain her seat in a usually red-heavy state after being elected in the special election that occurred earlier this year.
For reference, the last Democrat to take position in the Alaskan House of Representatives was Nick Begich Sr. in 1972, half a century ago and a year before Peltola herself was born.
In 1973, Don Young was sworn in and served as Alaska State Representative until his death in 2022. Those 49 years made him the longest serving Republican representative in history.
Four candidates vied for the position in this year’s election: Mary Peltola, a Yup’ik woman, tribal judge, and executive director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission; Sarah Palin, former Alaskan governor as well as former mayor of Wasilla; Nick Begich III, the grandson of Don Young’s predecessor Nick Begich Sr and Chris Bye, former military service member, local Alaskan, and fishing guide.
Peltola seems to have won over the Alaskan public in her few months in office, winning the election by nearly 10%, or nearly 24,000 votes.
The ultimate totals, once ranked-choice votes had been calculated, were Peltola with 54.9% and Palin with 45.1%.
In the Senate election, Republican Lisa Murkowski took 53.7% of the votes, with another Republican, Kelly Tshibaka, coming in second.
Mike Dunleavy won re-election as governor with 50.3% of the votes. Democrat Les Garas came in second with 24.2%, and the nonpartisan Bill Walker came in with 20.7%.
From speaking with students on campus, it seems that voting was a relatively simple and easy experience, with most students having the opportunity to vote on campus. For those that couldn’t, a total of 80 different voting locations across the Anchorage area eliminated the possibility of exaggerated wait times or crowds.
One new piece of confusion hit voters this year, however: the introduction of ranked choice voting.
Some argue that ranked choice voting was too complicated and confused voters, potentially altering results. These complaints were heard loud and clear after the special election earlier this year, and voting locations this November all had posters, pamphlets, signs and guides carefully spelling out how to properly fill out a ranked choice ballot. Beyond that, election workers were able to further explain.
It seems many of the students who voted were happy with ranked choice voting, being outspoken in their support of it after their first experience with it, claiming it made voting feel a little bit more meaningful.
.jpg)
