Alaska’s early presidential election results show Trump leading Biden

Early returns in Tuesday’s general election indicated that a majority of Alaskans support Republican President Donald Trump’s re-election, though thousands of ballots had yet to be counted.

As of 11:10 p.m. Tuesday, the Alaska Division of Elections had counted 133,371 ballots so far in the race, representing about 22.4% of registered voters. In early results, Trump carried 61% of the vote while Democratic nominee and former vice president Joe Biden received 34.5%.

The candidate with the next highest percentage of votes was Libertarian Party candidate Jo Jorgenson, with 2.6% of the vote in early returns.

Tens of thousands of ballots won’t be counted for several days in the election. A record number of Alaskans requested absentee ballots for the election, and state elections workers won’t start counting over 120,000 absentee and early voting ballots until at least Nov. 10.

Nationally, with close races in battleground states and outstanding ballots still to be counted, there wasn’t a decisive winner in the presidential race as of Tuesday night. This year’s campaign has proven to be especially contentious, and polling shows that the economy and coronavirus pandemic were two of the top issues for many American voters.

[Trump wins Florida but remains locked in tight races in battleground states with Biden]