Peltola campaign loses in court on rejected absentee ballots as she maintains narrow lead

A judge has rejected Democratic candidate Mary Peltola’s request for records identifying rejected absentee ballots in Alaska’s still-uncalled Senate race. The ruling means the election count will continue without the customised report, while Peltola’s narrow lead has shifted as more ballots are tallied.

Judge Thomas Matthews said producing the report during peak election work was unreasonable and that the state election agency lacked capacity; state lawyers also cited voter privacy. With about 86% of expected votes counted, Peltola had 121,487 first-choice votes (48.9%) to Republican Dan Sullivan’s 117,512 (47.3%), a margin of 3,975. Neither has a majority, and two other candidates’ combined totals exceed that margin, so ranked-choice transfers could affect the result after absentee counting, expected around 18 November.