Alaska, Stop Playing Games And Give Mary Peltola Her Damn Senate Seat

At some point, Alaska needs to stop playing games and call this Senate race for Mary Peltola. And I don’t care if Dan Rather, Dan Marino or Daniel Day-Lewis were running in this race — the preliminary numbers keep pointing to the same conclusion: Peltola is winning.

But nothing can ever just be easy.

In case you’ve been living under the demolished East Wing of the White House, there were two Dan Sullivans running in the Alaska Senate race. One was the Republican incumbent. The other was a schoolteacher who just so happened to have the same name and entered the race to muck things up (allegedly).

At one point, Trump threatened to get big mad if his Dan Sullivan didn’t win. But that was before the blue tsunami came through and crushed Republicans’ hopes of holding on to Congress. Turning Alaska blue might not determine control of the Senate anymore, but that doesn’t mean we’re not trying to run up the score.

According to the Alaska Beacon, “Peltola gained enough first-choice votes to outweigh Sullivan’s runoff advantage. As of 4 p.m., she led Sullivan by 2,517 votes out of 219,342 cast. Republican candidate Gerald Heikes and independent Dan J. Sullivan were a distant third and fourth, respectively.”

Alaska’s ranked-choice election system requires a first-choice candidate to receive more than 50% of the first-choice votes to win outright. If nobody crosses that threshold, the race goes to a ranked-choice runoff, where voters’ second choices help determine the winner.

Peltola has received roughly 48.5% of the first-choice votes, putting her within striking distance of the threshold needed to avoid a runoff altogether.

And Tuesday’s ballot count could be the difference.

“Altogether, the division added 4,947 counted ballots to the statewide tally on Monday, but tens of thousands of ballots are expected to be added to the tally on Tuesday as the division includes absentee and early votes received in the days immediately before Election Day,” the Alaska Beacon reports.

So, yes, we’re still waiting. And apparently, Alaska needs a few more days to figure out which Dan Sullivan it’s supposed to be counting.

But the numbers are moving in Peltola’s direction, and there’s no reason to pretend this is some great mystery. Count the ballots, finish the job, and give Mary Peltola her damn win. We’ve had enough drama from Washington. Alaska doesn’t need to add a sequel.

SEE ALSO:

Will Alaska’s Real Dan Sullivan Please Stand Up? [Op-Ed]

Drama Behind 2 Dan Sullivans In Alaska’s Senate Race Ain’t Nothing New

Trump Sues Alaska To Stop A Senate Election If His Guy Loses

2 Dan Sullivans, 1 Senate Seat, An Alleged Democratic Plot To Flip Congress