Note: This form will be populated as the Division of Elections provides returns, sometime after polls close statewide at 8 p.m. Tuesday, November 6. Thanks to KTOO’s Dave Purdy for his help producing this information.
UPDATE 4:30 p.m. Friday, November 9:
As of Friday, Democratic incumbent Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins leads Republican challenger Richard Wein by 650 votes with 100% percent of precincts reporting. Kreiss-Tomkins will return to the state legislature for a fourth term as Representative of House District 35.
Hundreds of absentee and question ballots must still be counted, but the results are unlikely to change. The state also a 15 day window to receive ballots from military and oversee addresses.
UPDATE 4:10 p.m. Thursday, November 8:
As of 3 p.m. Thursday, Democratic incumbent Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins leads Republican challenger Richard Wein by almost 670 votes with 85 percent of precincts reporting. Results from three precincts – Craig, Klawock, and Thorne Bay – have yet to be uploaded to the Alaska Division of Elections website.
Over 26-hundred Sitkans voted in person on Election Day – the biggest community in the district. Petersburg saw 940 voters in person on Election Day, supporting Kreiss-Tomkins with 58% of the vote. In Sitka, Kreiss-Tomkins received 55% of the vote.
Kreiss-Tomkins felt it was unlikely that returns in those other four communities will change the results of the election.
“Given their size, it’s seemingly mathematically improbable that things can really change all that much from the current margin,” Kreiss-Tomkins said. “So, feeling good and it’s at least partial punctuation on the election.”
UPDATE 11:30 a.m. Thursday, November 8:
With more precincts counts coming in at about 11 a.m. this morning (11-8-18) — including Sitka’s — Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins has widened his lead to represent Sitka, Petersburg, and neighboring Southeast Communities in the Alaska Legislature to almost 600 votes, or 56-percent of the ballots cast in Tuesday’s General Election.
With 10 of 14 precincts now reporting, the unofficial results now show the Democratic incumbent Kreiss-Tomkins with 2,722 votes to 2,131 votes for the Republican challenger Richard Wein.
The votes in four communities in House District 35 remain uncounted: Klawock, Craig, Kake, and Thorne Bay. There are also about 600 absentee and early ballots that have not been counted.
Following Tuesday’s election, officials with the state Division of Elections reported a problem with the so-called “ender cards” used to close a voting machine after all ballots have been cast. The results from several precincts in House 35 have been delayed while voting machines were couriered to state election officials in Juneau.
UPDATE 7:00 a.m. Wednesday, November 7:
As of 5 a.m. today, Democratic state Representative Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins leads Republican challenger Richard Wein by 302 votes. But the race is far from over.
A total of 1366 absentee and early return ballots still have to be counted in the race for House District 35. Moreover, six precincts have not yet reported their results – including Sitka.
KCAW learned early this morning that Sitka’s machine had a technical malfunction, as did machines in other Southeast communities. The Sitka machine will be mailed back to the Division of Elections in Juneau and they will have to obtain the results. Sitka, as with all communities in Alaska, uses machines from the company Dominion Voting.
Kreiss-Tomkins joined the state House of Representatives in 2012 after narrowly beating Republican incumbent Bill Thomas by just 34 votes.
But in elections since then, he has won by wide margins beating Republican challengers by about 20 points in 2014 and 2016.
During his campaign, Kreiss-Tomkins supported balancing the state budget, improving ferry service in coastal Alaska, and constitutionalizing the Permanent Fund dividend.
On top of Richard Wien’s legislative priorities was to support a repeal of SB91 – a 2015 bill that reformed the criminal justice system – and to address the high cost of healthcare.
House District 35 includes Sitka, which both candidates call home, as well as Hoonah, Angoon, Port Alexander, Pelican, Elfin Cove and Kake.
