An Alaska judge on Wednesday, November 11, denied Democrat Mary Peltola's campaign a list of voters whose absentee ballots were rejected in the nation's only Senate race still without a winner, ruling that election officials are too busy counting ballots to produce the report.

Source: US News Pulse, citing AP and Reuters tallies

Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews called the request "not reasonable" at the height of the count, according to the ruling reported on Wednesday. The campaign sued Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom and Elections Director Carol Beecher on November 5-6, seeking the names and accept-or-reject codes for rejected absentee ballots. Matthews sided with the Alaska Division of Elections, finding the agency is "currently busy processing ballots from the 2026 general election" and "simply lacks the capacity to generate the report" from the voter registration database.

Source: US News Pulse

3,975Peltola's first-choice lead over Sullivan in the AP count, Nov 11 evening
48.9%Peltola's share of first-choice votes (AP)
47.3%Sullivan's share of first-choice votes (AP)
86%Estimated share of the expected vote counted
Nov 18Ranked-choice tabulation date if no candidate tops 50%

The closest race in the country

Peltola, a Democrat, leads Republican incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan in the final uncalled Senate race of the 2026 midterms. In the Associated Press count as of the evening of November 11, Peltola had 121,487 first-choice votes (48.9%) to Sullivan's 117,512 (47.3%), a lead of 3,975 votes, with an estimated 86% of the expected vote counted. An earlier snapshot cited by the campaign put the lead at 4,250 votes — 118,926 to 114,676 — with about 84 to 86% counted; the figures move as ballots are added, and neither is a final certified result.

Source: Congress Countdown, AP 2026 Senate results

Alaska is the last Senate race in the country still uncalled after the November 3 midterms, and its outcome will decide whether Democrats finish with 55 or 56 seats. That stakes were set on Wednesday when Democrat Scott Colom won Mississippi's Senate race after Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith conceded, leaving Alaska as the only outstanding contest. The Associated Press has not called the Alaska race, and the outcome remains unofficial.

Source: US News Pulse

Peltola's campaign filed the lawsuit last week seeking the rejected-ballot records; this site reported the filing on November 6. Read the earlier report: Peltola sues for rejected absentee ballot records

Why Alaska counts slowly

Alaska counts slowly by design. State law accepts absentee ballots from overseas voters for up to 15 days after Election Day as long as they were postmarked by November 3, and many ballots come from communities off the road system. The Division of Elections is expected to release another count update on Friday, November 13. Alaska uses ranked-choice voting in general elections: if no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, lower-ranked candidates are eliminated and their ballots are transferred according to each voter's next valid preference.

Source: Congress Countdown

If neither candidate crosses 50%, the state is targeting November 18 for the ranked-choice tabulation — the day the last overseas ballots are due — with certification targeted for November 25. The race could still come down to the other candidates on the ballot: Gerald Heikes has 5,426 first-choice votes and Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. has 4,100, according to the AP count.

Source: American Talk / Associated Press

What the ruling does — and does not — decide

The ruling decides only whether the campaign gets the rejected-ballot list now. It does not decide the race, and it does not rule on whether any individual ballot was rightly or wrongly rejected. The Sullivan campaign was allowed to intervene in the case. Peltola's campaign manager, Cheryl Bruce, said the latest ballot release showed there was "not a viable path to reelection for Senator Sullivan" — the campaign's assessment, not a conclusion independently reached by the AP, which has not called the race. Analysts caution that an election-night lead alone is not sufficient to declare a winner while outstanding ballots and ranked-choice preferences could change the outcome.

Source: Brownstone Worldwide, citing Alaska Public Media/KTOO, AP and Reuters

What is solid

  • Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews ruled on Wednesday, November 11, that Peltola's campaign will not get a list of voters whose absentee ballots were rejected, calling the request "not reasonable" while counting continues.
  • Peltola leads Sullivan by about 4,000 first-choice votes, roughly 49% to 47%, with about 86% of the expected vote counted, according to the AP count as of November 11.
  • The Associated Press has not called the race; the result is unofficial until Alaska certifies it, targeted for November 25.
  • If no candidate tops 50% of first-choice votes, ranked-choice tabulation is scheduled for November 18.

What is only claimed

  • The campaign's claim that there is "not a viable path to reelection for Senator Sullivan" is the campaign's assessment, not a race call — the AP has not called the race.
  • The exact size of Peltola's lead varies by snapshot: 4,250 votes in an earlier count cited by the campaign, 3,975 votes in the AP's November 11 evening count; both are unofficial and moving.

What happens next

The next results release is expected on Friday, November 13. If neither candidate crosses 50% once every ballot is counted, the ranked-choice tabulation on November 18 will decide the winner, and certification is targeted for November 25. Until an authoritative race call or final state results, Peltola is the leader whose campaign is claiming victory — not the confirmed winner.