The votes are adding up for Alaska’s primary election, which happened Aug. 18.
Poll workers say Petersburg had strong voter participation in this year’s primary. In the Petersburg-Kupreanof precinct, 555 voters cast ballots in-person on Tuesday by the time the polls closed.
That turnout was higher than the previous primary held in 2024, which officially saw 393 ballots from Petersburg.
Not including early or absentee ballots, the unofficial local primary results from votes cast on Tuesday are as follows:
For U.S. Senate, Petersburg voters favored Democrat Mary Peltola (237 votes). Incumbent Republican Sen. Dan. S. Sullivan tallied close behind (213 votes). Petersburg’s Dan. J. Sullivan, running as a Republican, got 66 votes locally at the polls Tuesday.
That support tracks with the statewide trend. The Division of Election’s unofficial tally, updated Wednesday afternoon, shows Peltola has garnered 63,810 votes, Sen. Sullivan has 56,717 and Petersburg’s Dan. J. Sullivan has 3,232.
For U.S. House, Petersburg voters favored incumbent Republican Rep. Nick Begich III (243 votes). Independent Bill Hill was close behind (202 votes). They’re followed by Democrat candidates Eric Hafner (25 votes) and Matt Schultz (23 votes); Schultz suspended his campaign after primary ballots were printed. Petersburg’s top four closely aligns with the unofficial statewide tally.
Also matching the statewide trend, 441 Petersburg voters supported Ballot Measure 1, which would limit how much money donors can give to campaigns; 96 people in town voted against the measure on Tuesday.
Incumbent Republican Sen. Bert Stedman had no challengers in the race for District A’s state Senate seat.
As for District 2’s state House seat, voters in Petersburg largely favored incumbent Independent Rep. Rebecca Himschoot (323 votes) over her two challengers. That tracks with the district’s overall unofficial tally.
Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, or “JKT,” garnered strong support in his bid for Alaska’s next governor, receiving 259 votes at Petersburg’s polls on Tuesday. Following JKT, Republican Click Bishop got 61 votes. Democrat Tom Begich and Republican Bernadette Wilson each got 43 votes.
Petersburg’s top picks do not exactly match the unofficial governor primary results statewide, which as of Wednesday afternoon show JKT leading with 21.6%, Begich with 20.1%, Wilson with 10.4%, and Republican Dave Bronson with 8.4%.
Votes are still being counted statewide; some ballots haven’t arrived at state election offices yet. Absentee ballots postmarked by Aug. 18 that arrive by Aug. 28 will be added to the tally.
The Alaska Division of Elections plans to certify the results at the end of August.
Editor’s Note: This story was amended Wednesday night with updated statewide results. The original version included figures from early Wednesday morning. Vote-counting in Alaska is still underway.
