Tight District 10 Republican primary will come down to absentee ballots

Update 11:00 am 8/19/2020:

The unofficial results for primary election day voting are in for House District 10.

Most races on the primary ballots were either unopposed or came in with a heavy favorite.  The one exception is the Republican Primary for the area’s Alaska State House seat.

Incumbent Representative David Eastman has been an outspoken and, at times, controversial figure in Juneau.  His challenger, Mat-Su Borough Assembly Member Jesse Sumner, based much of his campaign around the idea that he would do a better job cooperating and compromising. 

Voters on Tuesday came out in favor of Eastman, though not by a massive margin.  In total, Eastman received 1,129 votes to Sumner’s 1,050.  In terms of precincts, Eastman came out ahead after Tuesday with six to Sumner’s four.  The candidates show a tie in Houston.

The ultimate fate of the race will come down to absentee ballots.  Alaska Division of Elections documents indicate that there could be more than a thousand votes yet to be counted.  That counting is expected to begin next week.

Original Story: The Republican primary race for House District 10 will be determined by mail-in absentee ballots.

As of midnight, ten of the district’s eleven precincts had reported in-person voting results.  Incumbent Representative David Eastman led Mat-Su Borough Assembly Member Jesse Sumner by less than half a percent of the 2,000 votes cast.  There could be more than 1,000 absentee ballots yet to be counted.  The Alaska Division of Elections stated earlier this month that counting of those ballots will not begin until next week.

The race was a relatively expensive one, with the campaigns spending more than $150,000 in addition to efforts by other groups.

In the Democratic Primary, Monica Stein-Olson ran unopposed, and is the presumptive nominee for the general election.