ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The Latest on the election for state House District 15 in Anchorage (all times local):
5:05 p.m.
State Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux says it would be absurd to think there would be any manufacturing of votes in her House election.
She says she’s never done that, and worked hard to campaign door-to-door in her district, especially among the large Hmong population.
LeDoux trailed Republican rival Aaron Weaver by three votes after last week’s primary election. But she surged ahead with the count of absentee votes, taking a lead of 113 votes on Tuesday.
The state has said there were some irregularities with the district’s absentee votes, and 26 votes were counted even though there were some authenticity issues. If you take those out, she has a lead of 87 votes. The election will be certified Saturday.
LeDoux says any irregularities were properly detected by the state.
She says the votes that have given her the lead are, by the state’s own standards, valid votes.
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1:12 p.m.
The incumbent in an Alaska state House district surged ahead in a close race Tuesday with the count of absentee ballots, some of which were fraught with irregularities.
Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux of Anchorage trailed her Republican opponent by three votes after the Aug. 21 Alaska primary election with absentee and questioned ballots to be counted. Those broke her in favor, 158 votes for her compared to 36 for Aaron Weaver.
State election officials threw out seven applications for absentee ballots requested in the names of dead people. Two additional absentee ballots were rejected after voters said they didn’t vote.
Election officials found 26 ballots with authenticity issues. Those were counted and will be verified Saturday. However they have been kept separate from other ballots in case of legal challenges.
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