Only three votes now separate two northern Alaska House candidates.
Dean Westlake of Kotzebue has 780 votes, ahead of 777 votes for incumbent Rep. Ben Nageak, who’s from Barrow.
Alaska’s Division of Elections is still counting votes from House District 40, which stretches from Kotzebue to Kaktovik.
Elections director Josie Bahnke said a review board met in Nome on Tuesday, Aug. 23, and certified 42 ballots in the race.
But, there are still more to count.
“I’ve been talking to staff about this being a marathon, not a sprint.”
Bahnke’s division has come under fire in recent days for voting irregularities in the Northwest Arctic village of Shungnak. Voters there were given ballots for both primaries, though they only were supposed to get one.
Bahnke’s division is working with the Department of Law to determine what to do if the added ballots in Shungnak appear to change the outcome of the race, she said.
There are at least 120 ballots left to count for House District 40, which includes questioned, special needs and absentee ballots.
The state deadline to count absentee ballots is Friday.
The election should be certified by September 2.
The race is one of two that State Democratic Party officials targeted in an attempt to unseat two Democrats who caucus with the Republican-led House majority.
The challengers, and party officials, say they’re hoping to build a bipartisan coalition in the House.
With no Republicans in either race, the candidate who wins won’t have a general election challenger.
Rashah McChesney is a photojournalist turned radio journalist who has been telling stories in Alaska since 2012. Before joining Alaska's Energy Desk , she worked at Kenai's Peninsula Clarion and the Juneau bureau of the Associated Press. She is a graduate of Iowa State University's Greenlee Journalism School and has worked in public television, newspapers and now radio, all in the quest to become the Swiss Army knife of storytellers.
