The races for Alaska’s legislative elections this fall continued to take shape on Thursday, after most of the remaining absentee ballots were counted.
In all but a few races, it would take hundreds of ballots that hadn’t previously been announced to change results.
The most prominent close race remaining is that of North Pole Republican Sen. John Coghill, facing Robert Myers. Myers is up by eight with an estimated 76 ballots left to count. There were no new votes counted in the race on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Roger Holland continues to lead Senate President Cathy Giessel in an Anchorage Republican race, 3,684 to 2,054, with few votes left to count. Holland would face Democrat Carl Johnson in the general election if there are no changes.
Sen. Natasha von Imhof continued to build her lead over Stephen Duplantis in another Anchorage Republican race, 2,160 for von Imhof to 1,881 for Duplantis. The winner would face Democrat Roselynn Cacy and independent Jeff Landfield in the fall.
And Kodiak Republican Sen. Gary Stevens extended his lead over challenger John Cox in a district that also includes the southern Kenai Peninsula Borough and Cordova. Stevens has 2,085 votes, while Cox has 1,854. The winner would face Alaskan Independence Party candidate Greg Madden in the fall.
In the House, Kathy Henslee took a seven-vote lead over Connie Dougherty in the Republican primary to face Democratic Rep. Chris Tuck for an Anchorage seat. The race was tied after Tuesday. AIP candidate Timothy Huit also is running.
Paul Bauer has built a lead over David Walker to be the Republican challenger to Anchorage Democratic Rep. Ivy Spohnholz, who wasn’t opposed in her primary. Libertarian Scott Kohlhaas also is running for the seat.
The state Division of Elections is expecting to finish counting votes on Friday. The state review board must certify the results by Wednesday.
Andrew Kitchenman is the state government and politics reporter for Alaska Public Media and KTOO in Juneau. Reach him at akitchenman@alaskapublic.org.
