Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.
An Alaska judge has ruled against Mary Peltola's campaign in its bid for a list of voters whose absentee ballots were rejected, as counting continues in the state's unresolved US Senate race.
Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews ruled that Alaska's Division of Elections is "currently busy processing ballots from the 2026 general election" and "simply lacks the capacity to generate the report from" the voter registration database at the behest of Peltola's campaign.
"Even if the request were otherwise considered reasonable outside the peak election time of year, it is simply not reasonable nor required right now," the ruling said. With 86% of votes counted as of late Wednesday, Peltola – the Democratic candidate – holds a narrow lead over Republican incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan, according to media tallies.
The margin between the two candidates stood at 1.6%. It is the only Senate race in the country that remained too early to call. Ballots are still being tallied in the ranked-vote election, with Peltola and two-term Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan the main contenders. If no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote, the race will head to a ranked-choice tabulation.



