Rashah McChesney

With many ballots still to be counted, some races have started to take shape after early results in Alaska’s Election Day tally.

With nearly 70% of precincts reporting, the state’s Division of Elections updated results a little before 1 a.m. Wednesday, showing a total of about 157,0000 votes cast statewide. With increased absentee by mail votes amid the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 120,000 early absentee votes remain to be counted in a week, starting on Nov. 10.

Republicans lead at the top of the ballot, as Alaskans have so far favored President Donald Trump, incumbent U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and longtime Congressman Don Young, each with more than 60 percent of the vote in their respective races.

The early count shows voters rejecting both initiatives on the ballot.

Ballot Measure 1, aimed at changing state oil taxes, was down with nearly 65% of votes cast against it. It would have to get “yes” votes on more than 65% of remaining ballots to overcome the gap.

And Ballot Measure 2, which would overhaul the state’s elections, was failing with “no” votes amounting to nearly 57%When the remaining votes are counted, Ballot Measure 2 would need to take more than 56% of them in order to pass. 

Some of the races that could determine who controls the Alaska House and Senate are also starting to come into focus. 

The state House currently has 23 Republicans, and it takes 21 seats to control the chamber. The Senate has 13 Republicans; 11 seats are needed to control it.

Several incumbent Democrats in the Alaska Legislature were behind Tuesday night.

• Fairbanks’ District 5 state Rep. Adam Wool trailed Republican challenger Kevin McKinley slightly, 48% to 52%.
• Anchorage Rep. Ivy Spohnholz was behind Republican challenger Paul Bauer 52-40%, with Libertarian Scott Kohlhaas taking nearly 9% of the votes.
• Anchorage Rep. Chris Tuck is trailing Republican challenger Kathy Hensley who holds nearly 52% of the vote. Alaska Independence Party candidate Timothy Huitt has drawn just under 10% of the vote in that race.
• Anchorage Sen. Bill Wielechowski was behind Republican challenger Madeleine Gaiser, who took a little more than 51%.

Initial results showed Supreme Court Justice Susan Carney overcoming a conservative coalition’s campaign against her, with 57% of voters favoring her retention.

These are preliminary results, and, as Alaska is the last state in the country to begin to count absentee ballots, the outcome of close races won’t be known for at least a week after Election Day.

A third staff member at a senior care facility in Juneau has tested positive for COVID-19. 

According to a letter Wildflower Court Director of Nursing Emily Merli sent to community members, the person had limited contact with residents and other staff members – so just one other person is being required to quarantine. 

The nonprofit, 57-bed facility is divided into four homes, the person who tested positive primarily worked in Huckleberry Home.  That home is under quarantine until Nov. 11 according to Merli’s letter. 

The facility hasn’t allowed visitors since March. Wildflower Court administrator Ruth Johnson said Saturday that both staff members who have tested positive in recent weeks contracted the virus outside of the facility. 

“I don’t know that the staff know exactly where they’ve picked it up, which is what’s scary,” she said. 

Because Wildflower Court residents are generally older and at times, have long-term illnesses – they’re at a much higher risk of complications from contracting COVID-19 than other people. They’re among the most vulnerable residents in Juneau. 

Johnson said she wishes Juneau residents would be safer. In recent weeks, Juneau’s case counts have accelerated along with many other communities in the state. According to city data, there are 108 residents who have active cases of COVID-19.

There have been multiple outbreaks fueling the increase, including one in the city’s homeless population and among people who offer social services to them; at least 86 people have tested positive, though most have recovered. Another cluster of new infections stems from the Mendenhall Auto Center where at least 14 people recently contracted the virus. 

Most of the other new cases are from family and social gatherings according to Juneau’s Emergency Operations Center.  

“There’s a direct correlation between nursing home outbreaks and the community,” Johnson said. “The harder it is for the community to keep the virus in check, the harder it is for me to keep it out of the building.”

Johnson said the state has been doing all of their testing, and when their first staff member tested positive – Bartlett rapid-tested everyone. 

According to Merli’s letter, they took the nasal swabs of most of the residents except three who refused. Most of them returned negative by Friday morning. Any residents who refuse a test have to quarantine for 14 days. 

“Fortunately those who have refused are fairly reclusive individuals,” Johnson wrote in an email. 

They also swabbed Salmonberry Home residents on Wednesday and all of those test results came back negative. Staff and residents are tested weekly and that will continue for two weeks until they have no new positive cases among staff or residents, according to Merli’s letter.  

The next facility testing day is Monday Nov. 2.

This story has been updated with information about the results of the tests of Salmonberry Home residents and to correct which entity does most of Wildflower Court’s COVID-19 testing, it is the state. Bartlett has done rapid-testing for the facility in the past.

Alaska logged 447 new cases of COVID-19 in at least 37 communities and one new death by Saturday. 

440 of the new cases are among residents and more than half are from Anchorage. The city has 229 new cases. Other spots with double-digit increases include Fairbanks with 35, the Bethel and surrounding area with 33, Kenai with 20, Chevak with 14, Wasilla with 12, Juneau and Soldotna with 10. 

Seven new non-resident cases were identified, three in Anchorage, one in Dillingham, one in the Bristol Bay and Lake and Peninsula boroughs, one in Fairbanks and another whose location isn’t known. 

So far, 15,274 Alaskans and 1,081 non-residents in the state have tested positive for COVID-19.  Most of those people have recovered, but 82 people have died. The latest death was a man from Anchorage who was in his 70s. 

Right now, 94 people diagnosed with COVID-19 or waiting on test results are in the hospital, six of them are on ventilators. 

Anchorage is hitting its inpatient and ICU bed capacity and Interior Alaska has just six inpatient beds available. However, these numbers tend to fluctuate wildly. That’s, in part, because the state’s dashboard displays available beds based on the number of medical providers available to staff them. 

Because of the volume of cases that are coming in, the state is lagging behind in getting the information out. According to a media release, it can take a day or two to get a report entered and counted. The Department of Health and Social Services expects daily case counts to remain at this level or higher, according to the release. 

• Juneau’s Montessori School in Douglas is closed after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19.
• As of Friday afternoon, about 750 people have applied for housing and utility assistance through Juneau’s new pandemic relief program
• A few years after the Libertarian Party was founded in the Lower 48, voters in Fairbanks elected the first Libertarian to any partisan office in the country. Most Alaskans register to vote as nonpartisan or undeclared, leaving a lot of room for that Libertarian seed to take root. But Alaska’s last successful Libertarian candidate left office in 1986. Why hasn’t the “party of principle” gotten much traction in Alaska?
• The environmental group that captured executives of the Pebble Mine boasting about their sway over Alaska’s senators and governor have released new footage from those secretly recorded sessions.

Juneau Montessori School in Douglas is closed after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19.

According to an email to parents, all staff are getting tested over the weekend and school officials are recommending that families get tested as well. School officials are also consulting with Juneau’s public health department to figure out what to do next.

The school could be closed for up to two weeks, according to the email.

Juneau is reporting seven new cases of COVID-19 Friday. 

Six of them are residents and one is a nonresident. None of the new cases are part of the clusters of infections identified at Mendenhall Auto Center or among the city’s homeless population. 

Right now, 14 Mendenhall Auto Center employees have tested positive for the virus; the business closed to the public. Among Juneau’s homeless population and caregivers who provide support to them, 86 people have tested positive — 70 have recovered. 

Statewide, health officials reported 384 new COVID-19 cases on Friday. 

There are four more deaths including a woman in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area in her 60s, an Anchorage resident in her 90s, a Matanuska-Susitna Borough resident in his 80s and an Anchorage resident in his 80s. It’s not clear when these deaths occurred. 

So far, 81 Alaskans have died after contracting the virus.