Voters across Southeast Alaska showed up to the polls yesterday, voting for House and Senate candidates in several competitive races, as well as two ballot measures.
Around 4,700 people in House District 1 cast their ballot this election, compared to nearly 8,700 in 2024.
Voters chose to reelect incumbent Republican Jeremy Bynum to represent them in the state’s House of Representatives. Unofficial results show Bynum received 61% of the vote.
There are 10 precincts spanning across House District 1, which covers Ketchikan, Wrangell, Metlakatla, Whale Pass and Coffman Cove.
John Pearson, chair of the Ketchikan #2 precinct, said he woke up on Tuesday at 4 a.m. to start helping out at the Plaza.
“Boy howdy it’s been busy,” Pearson said. “And that’s good, we like to see people voting. And we have less precincts than we had in the past. There’s only three city precincts now. At one time, we had eight.”
Jason Mitchell voted at Ketchikan’s Gateway Recreation Center. He says he’s a regular voter. This year, he said he found Ballot Measure 2 especially important, which asked Alaskans if they wanted to eliminate ranked choice voting and remove some “dark money” disclosure requirements for political contributions.
“I like ranked choice and keeping campaign finance laws,” Mitchell said. “I think we need more of them, not less of them.”
51% of voters in the district voted yes to that ballot measure to repeal ranked choice voting. But as of Wednesday afternoon, just over 50 percent of voters statewide chose to keep the status quo.
Nearly 75% of voters chose to approve Ballot Measure 3, which specifies that “only” U.S. citizens are allowed to vote in elections in the state. It has no functional impact and is nothing more than a language clarification.
The majority of voters — 51% — in District 1 voted for Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan in the U.S. Senate race against Mary Peltola, who received 43% of the district’s vote. That race has not yet been called.
In the U.S. House race, 55.96% of District 1 voters had incumbent Republican Nick Begich as their first choice. Independent challenger Bill Hill received around 1,500 votes, or just under 33%.
Nearly 400 people in the district voted for Democrat Eric Hafner, who is currently serving time in federal prison.
For Governor, nearly 48% of district votes went to Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and running mate Zac Johnson. That’s around 2,200 votes, compared to 1,200 cast for Bernadette Wilson and running mate Mike Shower.
Voters also reelected Superior Court judges Katherine Lybrand and Daniel Doty of Ketchikan.
KRBD’s Hunter Morrison contributed reporting.
