Election officials finished recounting the results of Ballot Measure 2 on Monday, and the outcome remains unchanged.
Alaska will keep ranked choice voting and open primaries.
The repeal effort failed by 743 votes, or about a quarter of one percentage point, according to the Division of Elections. That’s almost exactly the margin reflected in official results certified late last month, which showed the measure failing by 737 out of more than 300,000 votes.
The Alaska Republican Party requested the recount and monitored vote-counting alongside the anti-repeal campaign, No On 2.
During the recount, election officials re-scanned ballots and took a closer look at ballots where the voter’s choice wasn’t clear.
Related: Can you guess how these 10 ambiguous Ballot Measure 2 votes were counted?
They also hand-counted at least 5% of ballots from each state House district to ensure the machine totals were correct.
Election officials also completed their review of a Wasilla state House race Monday, confirming a win for real estate agent Elexie Moore.
Ahead of the recount, Moore led top opponent Steve Menard by just 12 votes in the all-Republican contest. After the recount, Moore won by nine votes.
In an interview shortly after the results were announced in Juneau, Menard said the recount provided some closure. He said he looked forward to spending time with his wife and two dogs, plus “a lot more cabin time” this winter.
“It’s been a long campaign season,” he said. “We just came up short.”
Moore will replace outgoing Republican Rep. Jesse Sumner when the Legislature convenes in January.
The state paid for both of the recounts. State law requires the state to pick up the tab in close races where the margin is less than either half a percent or 20 votes.
