3 Western Alaska villages appear to favor third-party candidates in presidential race

Republican former President Donald Trump has been declared the winner of Alaska’s presidential contest. But early results in three rural precincts indicate voters favored unexpected candidates.

In Aniak, left-leaning philosopher Cornel West, representing the Aurora Party, is leading the presidential race, having received 50.5% of first-choice votes counted so far in the precinct.

In Napakiak, early results show anti-abortion activist Randall Terry, representing the Constitution Party, with 51.5% of votes counted so far.

In Kipnuk, West is tied with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the lead, each having received 50 votes out of the 113 votes counted so far.

In at least one case, the posted results appear to reflect a reporting error by the Alaska Division of Elections, according to a local poll worker.

The three remote precincts are the only ones in Alaska in which neither Trump nor Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris have the lead in the presidential race. All but two precincts have reported at least some results as of Friday, with many more early and absentee ballots set to be tallied on Tuesday.

Statewide, Trump was leading with 55.5% of initial votes counted. Harris had 40.4% of the vote. Kennedy had 1.7%. West had less than 0.4%. Terry had less than 0.3%.

Carol Beecher, director of the Division of Elections, said in response to questions about the posted results that they “are not official and can change as we get more information.”

In small rural communities like Aniak, Napakiak and Kipnuk — home to 313, 224 and 455 registered voters respectively — local poll workers hand-count ballots and then call election officials to deliver their initial count by phone immediately after voting closes. The poll workers then pack up the ballots and mail them to the Division of Elections office, where they are scanned by tabulation devices. Results are not official until they are certified, which is scheduled to take place later this month.

In Alaska’s ranked choice elections, only first-choice votes are hand-counted immediately following the election. Alaska voters had the option of ranking up to eight presidential nominees.

Reached by phone Friday, Morgan Simeon, who serves as Aniak’s city clerk, said the results posted online for the precinct look “like the wrong numbers.”

“Harris had more votes in our village than Trump did,” said Simeon, who operated the village’s polling place for the first time this year.

The results as of Friday indicated Harris had received only three out of the 107 votes counted so far in Aniak. Trump was in second place to West, with 40 votes.

Simeon said she didn’t write down the vote tally before mailing the ballots as required to the Division of Elections office.

“As an election worker, I think that’s kind of frustrating because that’s not the right numbers that we had in our village,” she said.

[Voting supervisor for much of rural Alaska quietly replaced ahead of Election Day]

Poll workers from Napakiak and Kipnuk did not immediately respond on Friday to requests for additional information. Other voters in the region indicated that the third-party candidates may have had unexpected staying power in communities where internet connectivity is limited and news travels more slowly.

One voter in Kipnuk who wished to remain anonymous said she voted for Kennedy because she recognized his name. She said she didn’t like Trump, and didn’t know Harris.

Kennedy had formally dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Trump weeks before the election — but not early enough to have his name removed from the Alaska ballot. Kennedy appeared with Trump in numerous campaign events.

The tally as of Friday indicated that Trump received only five out of 113 votes counted so far in Kipnuk. Harris had two votes.

Of Napakiak’s 71 counted ballots, Trump was in second place with 23 votes counted as of Friday, trailing behind Terry’s 35. Kennedy had five votes. Harris had one. West had two.

West, formerly a professor at Princeton and Harvard universities, was backed by Alaska’s Aurora Party, on a platform of increasing the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend to $10,000 per resident, despite the fact that the president has no power to control the Permanent Fund or the annual dividend, which is set by state lawmakers.

Michelle Sparck, who directs Get Out the Native Vote, a nonpartisan organization, said Friday that the organization “doesn’t suspect fraud at this time.”

“Welcome to the idiosyncrasies of the Bush,” she said.