The Democratic Party candidate Mary Peltola already has 49.8% of the votes in the race for the U.S. Senate seat from the state of Alaska, according to data published by the DDHQ portal, which are based on official figures with 91% of the ballots already counted.
With this percentage, Peltola would be ahead of the current senator and Republican Party candidate, Dan Sullivan, who obtains 46.1%, and is close to the 50% threshold needed to achieve direct victory, without activating the ranked-order tabulation system. In this mechanism, the candidate with the least support is eliminated and the second preferences of his voters are redistributed among the other candidates in succession until one of them surpasses 50%.
"There is no mathematical way for Sullivan to win these elections. When the remaining votes are counted, Mary will be elected U.S. senator by Alaska," Peltola’s campaign highlighted in a message published on social media.
The recount must be completed before November 18. If by that date Peltola has not reached 50% of the support, the tabulation of second options will be applied according to the preferential voting system.
If Peltola’s victory is ultimately confirmed, the Democratic Party will have a comfortable majority of 56 senators versus the 44 of the Republican Party.