Statewide, Donald Trump outpolled Kamala Harris on election night by 15 points – 55-percent to 40-percent – to win the presidency, but in Sitka the results were much closer.
See the complete unofficial election results from the Alaska Division of Elections.
Sitka’s two precincts actually split on the presidential election. Voters in precinct No. 1 favored the Trump/Vance ticket by 32 votes. In Sitka No. 2, the Harris/Walz ticket had a 70-vote edge.
Harris’s advantage was even greater in communities surrounding Sitka. In Angoon, voters favored Harris over Trump by a 3-to-1 margin. In Kake, it was 2-to-1 in favor of Harris. Likewise, voters in Tenakee Springs chose Harris by a 2-to-1 margin.
In Yakutat, the presidential race was a bit closer, with voters preferring Harris by only 26 votes.
In Pelican, Elfin Cove, and Port Alexander, the tables were turned with Trump picking up the win by a few votes in all three communities.
The story was a bit different in the race for US Congress. Incumbent Democrat Mary Peltola trailed Republican challenger Nick Begich by four points on election night, 49- to 45-percent. But in Sitka and surrounding communities Peltola did very well, outpolling Begich in both of Sitka’s two precincts by well over one-hundred votes in each.
In Angoon, voters preferred Peltola by a 4-to-1 margin. Kake chose Peltola by over a 2-to-1 margin; so did Port Alexander. Peltola won in Tenakee and in Yakutat by 3-to-1 margins.
Pelican and Elfin Cove were the outlier in the district – and perhaps in the whole state. Voters there gave zero votes to Mary Peltola, and 13 to Nick Begich – but the Republican probably won’t be holding a victory parade there since voters actually preferred dark horse Democrat Eric Hafner over Begich by a two-to-one margin.
The Legislative race in House District 2 was no contest. Rebecca Himschoot, an independent from Sitka, was unopposed in her bid for a second term, and she cleaned up 98-percent of the vote.
Sitka area voters were in agreement with the rest of the state on Ballot Measure #1, which raises the minimum wage to $15 by 2027. As of election night, the measure passed by a 13-point margin, 56-percent to 43-percent. Voters in Sitka stretched that winning margin even further, to roughly 70-30 in favor.
Other communities in the district voted with similar spreads.
Local voting did not track with state results on Ballot Measure #2, however. This measure will repeal Alaska’s open primary elections, and ranked-choice voting. Statewide on election night the “yes” votes favoring the repeal led the “no” votes by 2 points, 51- to 49-percent.
In Sitka, far more voters chose “no” by about 20 points, 60-40. Angoon, Kake, Yakutat, and Tenakee voters turned in similar results. In Pelican and Elfin Cove, Ballot Measure #2 split about 50-50, and in Port Alexander voters favored the repeal 60-40, with the simplest math of the night: 6 votes “yes,” and 4 votes “no.”
Lastly, there were no surprises in the judicial retention election. Voters in and around Sitka chose to retain all judges by wide margins.
Early voting was huge in Alaska this year, as well as in many other places in the country. All early ballots cast through October 31 were counted on Election Day in Alaska; all early ballots cast between November 1-4 have not yet been counted. That’s a total of 23,000 early ballots still to be counted, along with another 24,000 absentees still to count as well. Often, early voting and absentee voting are consistent with Election Day results – but not necessarily. Many early ballots are from Mary Peltola’s home turf in Western Alaska, and likely could affect the outcome of the congressional race, as well as some state house and senate races.
Also, election results in Alaska are unofficial for at least 15 days, to ensure that all eligible ballots are counted. Those include overseas absentee ballots for example. November 20 is also when the ranked-choice tabulation will take place, for any congressional or legislative race where the leading candidate has less than 50-percent of the vote. That seems likely for the race for the US House of Representatives, where Nick Begich has a slight lead over Mary Peltola, but doesn’t have 50-percent of the vote. In that case, the Division Election will begin to factor in voters’ second-place choices, until a winner finally tops 50-percent.
