With a week to go, Alaska has already surpassed the 2016 early vote

Nearly 20,000 more Alaskans have already cast their ballot for this year’s general election than voted early in the 2016 election, according to statistics released by the Alaska Division of Elections this morning.

As of this morning, 70,685 Alaskans have already cast absentee ballots and another 21,452 have voted early in-person in the week since it opened. That brings the total of early voting to 92,137, far surpassing the 75,357 votes cast ahead of the presidential 2016 election.

Our look at the partisan breakdown of the votes lags those topline numbers because the Division of Elections releases the list for the early vote later in the day and the list for the absentee vote a few times a week. The most recent look at the early vote was released on Sunday and the latest look at the absentee vote is from Friday.

But according to those numbers, Democrats have a lead over Republicans when it comes to voting while voters not aligned with any party—Alaska’s largest voting group—leads all parties.

As of this morning, 21,270 Democrats have cast ballots (16,888 absentee and 4,382 early vote), 18,680 Republicans have cast votes (13,542 absentee and 5,138 early vote), while 36,354 nonpartisan and undeclared voters have cast votes (26,305 absentee and 10,049 early vote).

According to the weekend numbers, the highest turnout currently belongs to House District 28 where a whopping 4,095 people have already cast ballots. The district is home to one of several contested legislative races with Democrat-backed independent Suzanne LaFrance hoping to beat Republican James Kaufman, a far-right Republican who beat Republican Rep. Jennifer Johnston in the primary.

Democrats in House District 28 have already cast 1,027 votes, Republicans have cast 991 votes and independents have cast an additional 1,947 votes.

Though independents hold the overall advantage in every district, Democrats lead Republicans in 25 of the 40 legislative districts: 1, 4, 5, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40. Republicans have the advantage over Democrats in 15: 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 26, 29, 30, 32.

The overall early vote with early vote as of Oct. 25 and absentee as of Oct. 23 (more at the bottom of the post):

District	Total Votes	R	D	U	N	A	Other
Statewide	79,395	18,680	21,270	22,238	14,116	2,304	787
1	1,637	324	504	482	260	46	21
2	1,202	357	288	338	170	33	16
3	1,364	482	230	390	205	34	23
4	2,733	431	859	827	533	60	23
5	2,116	385	637	689	338	49	18
6	1,650	548	329	450	261	48	14
7	2,171	820	323	585	355	62	26
8	1,932	740	274	512	303	80	23
9	1,758	630	285	509	267	47	20
10	2,070	701	325	589	354	72	29
11	2,564	814	427	765	469	68	21
12	2,155	771	354	583	374	48	25
13	1,688	533	402	425	267	43	18
14	2,769	835	639	670	516	82	27
15	1,491	387	409	414	208	46	27
16	2,305	445	734	649	383	70	24
17	2,119	338	725	548	410	66	32
18	2,541	370	858	737	479	79	18
19	1,301	155	502	365	230	29	20
20	2,799	384	1,026	736	548	86	19
21	2,818	424	923	805	554	91	21
22	2,500	541	688	734	442	77	18
23	1,847	350	532	539	335	69	22
24	2,969	696	734	881	546	88	24
25	2,363	430	694	736	411	67	25
26	2,463	661	609	718	385	73	17
27	2,658	558	833	691	462	87	27
28	4,095	991	1,027	1,140	807	94	36
29	1,467	488	317	374	227	46	15
30	1,428	492	260	355	260	43	18
31	1,916	455	494	514	370	70	13
32	1,227	327	312	355	184	31	18
33	3,355	329	1,295	922	703	80	26
34	3,346	532	1,010	969	712	95	28
35	1,744	398	514	455	315	53	9
36	1,127	270	299	295	205	44	14
37	533	131	141	157	85	16	3
38	303	33	127	79	51	7	6
39	413	62	140	132	68	11	0
40	174	34	59	49	23	8	1

Alaskans have joined the rest of the country in particularly high early voting ahead of the high-stakes presidential election with unprecedented interest in by-mail absentee voting (the deadline to request a ballot has already passed) and early in-person voting.

Voting has not been entirely smooth, however, and the Palmer early vote location was closed at 11 a.m. on Friday after a poll worker tested positive for covid-19. According to a state news release the poll worker “had no close contact with any voters” and had been wearing a mask and was stationed behind a plexiglass barrier but had worked through Thursday, Oct. 22.

The Palmer location was set to reopen this morning.

It’s advised if you’re one of the 69,714 people who requested but have yet to return their early absentee ballot, to get it in the mail well ahead of election day as putting them in the mail box on election day doesn’t guarantee they will actually be postmarked that day. By-mail ballots can be returned to a handful of secured drop boxes or to any polling location.

Requesting an absentee ballot also doesn’t bar you from voting in-person, but the state asks that you destroy your by-mail ballot if that’s what you choose.  If you vote at one of the 10 early in-person voting locations (much of the others are technically early in-person absentee locations) before Oct. 29, then you’ll get the perk of having your vote counted on election night.

Absentee ballots, including by-mail absentee ballots, will not be tallied until a week after election day, guaranteeing that we won’t have a clear picture of nearly every race until after election day.

Confused by the Division of Elections’ website? For a clear and concise guide for voting, check out Alaska Votes Absentee.

Absentee vote as of Oct. 23, 2020

District	Total Votes	R	D	U	N	A	Other
Statewide	59,151	13,542	16,888	15,899	10,406	1,860	556
1	1116	235	360	303	171	33	14
2	889	270	225	226	129	25	14
3	963	341	185	248	146	29	14
4	1818	287	579	542	350	45	15
5	1350	230	457	410	210	31	12
6	1457	497	293	378	234	42	13
7	986	329	220	211	177	37	12
8	1060	390	191	240	166	61	12
9	1197	428	231	310	174	40	14
10	1314	399	255	340	245	55	20
11	1363	420	272	392	230	42	7
12	1401	474	271	375	233	36	12
13	1536	486	374	373	245	42	16
14	2540	759	597	606	472	80	26
15	1221	327	333	327	173	38	23
16	1821	345	578	508	307	62	21
17	1571	245	556	395	309	47	19
18	1844	245	655	539	337	57	11
19	1021	117	409	283	174	24	14
20	1959	270	726	512	373	63	15
21	2051	301	695	580	394	69	12
22	1938	387	562	567	343	67	12
23	1351	233	431	381	238	53	15
24	2237	507	596	632	415	70	17
25	1767	296	545	550	309	54	13
26	1814	449	493	526	276	58	12
27	2068	407	680	521	362	76	22
28	3215	737	855	884	636	80	23
29	1449	485	312	370	223	44	15
30	1422	491	260	351	259	43	18
31	1899	451	491	509	368	67	13
32	1214	322	307	353	183	31	18
33	2194	212	909	543	452	62	16
34	1749	252	633	450	342	61	11
35	1729	396	511	449	312	52	9
36	1124	269	299	294	204	44	14
37	519	126	139	152	83	16	3
38	298	32	126	77	50	7	6
39	236	37	86	69	40	4	0
40	166	30	59	48	21	7	1

Early vote as of Oct. 25, 2020

District	Total Votes	R	D	U	N	A	Other
Statewide	20,244	5,138	4,382	6,339	3,710	444	231
1	521	89	144	179	89	13	7
2	313	87	63	112	41	8	2
3	401	141	45	142	59	5	9
4	915	144	280	285	183	15	8
5	766	155	180	279	128	18	6
6	193	51	36	72	27	6	1
7	1185	491	103	374	178	25	14
8	872	350	83	272	137	19	11
9	561	202	54	199	93	7	6
10	756	302	70	249	109	17	9
11	1201	394	155	373	239	26	14
12	754	297	83	208	141	12	13
13	152	47	28	52	22	1	2
14	229	76	42	64	44	2	1
15	270	60	76	87	35	8	4
16	484	100	156	141	76	8	3
17	548	93	169	153	101	19	13
18	697	125	203	198	142	22	7
19	280	38	93	82	56	5	6
20	840	114	300	224	175	23	4
21	767	123	228	225	160	22	9
22	562	154	126	167	99	10	6
23	496	117	101	158	97	16	7
24	732	189	138	249	131	18	7
25	596	134	149	186	102	13	12
26	649	212	116	192	109	15	5
27	590	151	153	170	100	11	5
28	880	254	172	256	171	14	13
29	18	3	5	4	4	2	0
30	6	1	0	4	1	0	0
31	17	4	3	5	2	3	0
32	13	5	5	2	1	0	0
33	1161	117	386	379	251	18	10
34	1597	280	377	519	370	34	17
35	15	2	3	6	3	1	0
36	3	1	0	1	1	0	0
37	14	5	2	5	2	0	0
38	5	1	1	2	1	0	0
39	177	25	54	63	28	7	0
40	8	4	0	1	2	1	0