On Tuesday, the state of Alaska will begin a major task still remaining from last week's big national election: The counting of over 50,000 more ballots, some of which haven't even arrived from outer precincts.
As a state with a relatively small population dispersed throughout the largest geographic area in the country, Alaska can take a while to tabulate its elections. The state Division of Election has now received 34,518 additional absentee ballots, 2,651 early votes, plus 15,967 questioned ballots — a category that often includes ballots that were cast at the wrong polling place — the Alaska Dispatch News reports. And that's not all: There might be as many as 10,682 more outstanding absentee ballots.
In the Senate race, Republican nominee Dan Sullivan currently leads incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Begich by 8,149 votes, a tentative margin of 3.6 percent. And in the gubernatorial race, independent candidate Bill Walker leads incumbent Republican Gov. Sean Parnell by 3,165 votes, or 1.4 percent.