Anchorage Rep. Millett's narrow lead grows as more ballots counted

Incumbent Anchorage Republican Rep. Charisse Millett added seven votes Tuesday to a 45-vote lead in her tight re-election campaign against Democratic challenger Pat Higgins — but hundreds more ballots are still left to be counted.

Millett led Higgins, an Anchorage School Board member, 3,342 to 3,297, after the first round of counting last week in the race for House District 25.

State elections officials counted another 143 ballots Tuesday, bringing Millett's lead to 52.

Tuesday's count was a mix of early votes that weren't counted last week, plus "questioned" ballots — those cast by people whose eligibility couldn't be verified at the time they voted.

There are at least 400 more absentee votes that won't be counted until later this week at the earliest, according to state elections officials.

The state elections division will continue accepting absentee ballots until Friday that were mailed from within the United States, as long as they were postmarked Election Day or earlier. The last day for overseas ballots to make it to Alaska to be counted is Nov. 23.

Officials are still counting additional ballots for other races as well, though the contest for House District 25 is the tightest.

Millett is currently the majority leader for the Republican-led caucus in control of the state House, but with two of her colleagues trailing in unofficial results, a largely Democratic caucus is set to take over leadership in January, when the next legislative session begins.