The Division of Elections has updated results in the special primary for U.S. House and the finish order remains unchanged.
Republican Sarah Palin lost a percentage point in the latest count, to 28%. Republican Nick Begich III is still at 19%, nonpartisan Al Gross rose a point to nearly 13% and Democrat Mary Peltola rose more than a point to nearly 9%.
If that order holds this week and next week, those four will advance to the special general ballot in August. Peltola is more than 4,000 votes ahead of the fifth place finisher, Republican Tara Sweeney.
More than 130,000 ballots have been counted. It’s not clear how many will still arrive in the mail. The Associated Press estimates more than 80% of ballots have now been counted. The AP on Wednesday called the race for Palin, Gross and Begich.
The long process of ballot counting will continue until June 21.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
