Two weeks after Election Day, Alaska is still counting ballots. This isn’t new.

Many Alaskans are wondering: Why are election workers still counting ballots two weeks after Election Day?

Alaska’s generous absentee voting laws are not new. For years, the state has allowed voters to cast ballots by mail. As long as the ballots are postmarked on or before Election Day — and then delivered to an election office within 10 days of the election (or 15 days in the case of overseas voters) — they will be counted.

Alaska is one of 28 states in which voters do not need a special reason, or an “excuse,” to request an absentee ballot. That means that voters can ask for an absentee ballot without providing a reason for doing so.

But Alaska’s timeline is unusually generous. Most states require absentee ballots to be received by Election Day in order to be counted. Only a handful of states allow absentee ballots to be counted if received after Election Day — as long as they are postmarked on the day of the election at the latest.

“Alaska’s election process is unique because of our expansive geography, our various methods of voting, and our commitment to ensuring every voter’s voice is heard,” Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who oversees Alaska’s elections, said in a statement released Tuesday. “From urban centers to the most remote villages, we take the time required to receive, process, and count ballots securely and transparently.”

In California, Oregon and New York, ballots are counted as long as they arrive within a week after the election. In the District of Columbia and Maryland, ballots will be counted as long as they arrive within 10 days after the election. Illinois provides up to two weeks for ballots to arrive and be counted. Kansas, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia provide between three and six days for ballots to arrive.

[Updated 2024 Alaska general election results]

Alaska has particular reasons for its generous ballot counting timeline. In rural parts of the state, unusual weather events can delay the pickup and delivery of election materials. Even if the weather doesn’t delay the mail service, rural Alaska communities are subject to unique limits on mail service that mean it can take longer for the postal service to deliver ballots to their destination.

Pandemic changes

Alaska’s generous timeline for absentee ballot counting received little attention for years. Until 2020, absentee voting was an option used primarily by those for whom getting to an in-person polling location was difficult or impossible. Before the 2020 election, the number of by-mail voters had peaked at around 39,000 in 2008.

But the 2020 election, held at the height of coronavirus pandemic restrictions, popularized by-mail voting. That year, more than 98,000 Alaskans voted by mail, circumventing in-person polling locations. Even in the post-pandemic era, some voters are still choosing to cast their ballots by mail. This year, election workers have counted more than 51,000 by-mail ballots.

That means that in total, by-mail voting accounts for around 15% of all ballots cast in the November election.

The increase in by-mail voting came in tandem with the political rise of President-elect Donald Trump, who has repeatedly cast doubt on the validity of absentee voting. In 2020, Trump falsely claimed he had won the presidential election, and in the process led millions of Americans to question the validity of election results — even in states like Alaska where Trump had, in fact, won — and to criticize the work of state officials tasked with counting ballots.

Dahlstrom and Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher — both Republicans — have not pointed to any reasons for doubt over Alaska’s election results.

Still, some voters have wondered why outcomes in some tight races can change dramatically as additional batches of ballots are counted after Election Day. That’s because voters of different political persuasions and from different regions of the state are increasingly voting differently.

In Republican-leaning regions of the state, voters are more likely to cast ballots on Election Day. Even voters who chose to cast their ballots ahead of Election Day did so at early voting locations. Votes cast in those locations are counted differently from absentee ballots.

Meanwhile, left-leaning voters are less likely to be impacted by Trump’s false claims about problems with absentee ballots.

In the hours and days immediately after the election, the first ballots to be counted are those cast in person and at early voting locations. That means that in subsequent days, as additional absentee ballots are tallied, the results can shift.

That’s exactly what happened with the preliminary outcome of a referendum on the future of Alaska’s open primaries and ranked choice voting system. In a recent batch of nearly 4,000 absentee ballots cast by Anchorage-area voters, opponents of the repeal initiative vastly outnumbered supporters, even while the overall result is nearly split.

‘Unsettling to Alaskans’

What does this mean for the future of absentee voting in Alaska?

One conservative Republican senator is already planning to propose legislation intended to prohibit the Division of Elections from counting absentee ballots received after Election Day.

“The suspense and change of votes flipping over a two-week period in this and recent elections — either direction — is unsettling to Alaskans and naturally raises questions for many people,” said Sen. Shelley Hughes, a Palmer Republican. “This points to why we need to require all ballots be received by the Division by Election Day, and this is why I’m introducing a bill to do that, to fix what was set in statute decades ago when mail service to Alaska was extremely slow.”

Such legislation, if it were adopted, would have the biggest impact on rural Alaska communities, where mail service is least reliable and where Election Day turnout is already lower than in other parts of the state.

The U.S. Postal Service has improved its delivery times to rural Alaska, now relying mostly on planes where dog sleds and other means were once the norm. But challenges with mail delivery to and from rural Alaska persist.

Alaska House Speaker Cathy Tilton, a Wasilla Republican, said before the election that House Republicans earlier this year blocked legislation that would have made it easier for residents of rural Alaska to vote and fix errors in their ballots. Tilton said the legislation was blocked because it would have favored Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, who is now on track to lose to Republican challenger Nick Begich III.

Rep. Bryce Edgmon, a Dillingham independent on track to become the Alaska House’s new speaker next year, has said he intends to prioritize election reform that would make voting access easier in rural parts of the state.