After months of hard-fought campaigns, millions of dollars -- the most in state history -- and countless television ads and mailers, Alaskans headed to the polls Tuesday to decide the outcomes of 2014's Midterm elections. Polling places open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. To find your polling place, visit the Alaska Division of Elections.
We'll be posting our live coverage of the elections here. Check back for updates.
Election Day comes to a close
7:55 p.m.
As polls close and campaigns settle in to wait for early returns, we're wrapping up the Election Day live coverage. Follow the happenings at campaign events and Election Central tonight at our election night liveblog.
Marijuana vote defies party lines
7:40 p.m., Anchorage
If there's one thing that's clear about who's voting for marijuana, it's this: Party affiliation means zilch.
Husband and wife Larry and Lauren Larsen of Fairview both described themselves as conservative voters and both voted in favor of legalizing marijuana.
Lauren Larsen thought police did a good job of dealing with violent crime, but didn't do so well when it came to property crimes. She attributes that to being overworked, and thought if marijuana was legalized it would at least free up some police resources.
Larry Larsen said the couple, who do not use marijuana, knows people in Barrow who use pot.
"It's everywhere, it's no problem for people to get it," he said outside of his polling place at Anchorage's Central Lutheran Church. "If (marijuana enforcement) isn't working, then the hell with it."
Fellow Fairview resident Davy Mousseaux voted for conservative candidates straight down the ticket, but voted yes to legalize marijuana.
He said while he doesn't use it now, he has used it in the past and thought that legalization could help communities.
"Maybe if they legalize it there won't be so many problems," he said. "It's not like heroin or cocaine."
The biggest issue that drove Rebecca DeGoroot to the polls was the minimum wage initiative. She also voted in favor of support the Walker-Mallott unity ticket. But she didn't support Ballot Measure 2.
"I think there are more important things to worry about," she said.
Larry Mooney, waving a Begich sign Tuesday morning at the intersection of Minnesota Drive and Benson Boulevard, said "I wouldn't like to see it pass but I think it will."
-- Suzanna Caldwell
Waiting to offer aid in Bethel
6:15 p.m., Bethel
Voting was steady most of the day at Bethel's two polling places, at the Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center near the center of town and farther out at the Lower Kuskokwim School District Office, said Lori Strickler, Bethel city clerk.
Just after 5 p.m., the tally at the cultural center was 436 ballots cast plus another 107 who voted questioned ballots. At the school office, 468 had voted regular ballots and 57 more, questioned, Strickler said.
Interpreters were at both sites, ready to read ballots translated into Yup'ik for elders. Only a few elders asked for the help. John Active, an interpreter whose "Can I help?" sticker was in English, said that anyone who came in would recognize him and know he could interpret.
-- Lisa Demer
Absentee, early vote count begins today
6 p.m., Anchorage
The polls are still open another two hours for in-person voting, but tens of thousands of Alaskans cast their ballots well ahead of Election Day. Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai says the state will begin counting absentee and early ballots on Tuesday evening.
"We are counting over 30,000 early and absentee ballots tonight. Over 19,600 early votes and over 10,500 absentee," Fenumiai said in an email.
-- Dermot Cole
Taking advantage of Yup'ik language assistance
5:50 p.m., Bethel
Eula David, 84, relied on interpreter John Toopetlook to read her the ballot in Yup'ik Tuesday. "I'm glad he was there," she said after voting at the Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center. She particularly wanted to vote against marijuana legalization, she said. The ballot was confusing. She was glad for the translation.
Toopetlook is the Fairbanks-based language assistance coordinator for the state Division of Elections. He is originally from Nunapitchuk, 22 miles northwest of Bethel on the Johnson River. While Yup'ik dialects vary village to village, that materializes mainly in day-to-day life, he said. The translated ballots should be understandable to most Yup'ik speakers, he said.
-- Lisa Demer
They need to have a voice
5:50 p.m., Anchorage
In the referendum on Anchorage's labor law, AO-37, voters surveyed at polling places near downtown and in the Tudor area were generally in favor of repeal.
"It seems like those unions should have the right to bargain for their deals," said Rick Dover, 57.
"They need to have a voice," said Stephanie Mchen, 44, an Alaska Regional Hospital employee. She added, referring to police officers and firefighters: "They work hard and do a dangerous job."
Richard Traylor, a banquet captain at the Captain Cook Hotel, said he thought the way AO-37 was written and rolled out was unfair.
"(Mayor Dan) Sullivan's actions are outrageous," said Traylor, 69.
Of six voters who discussed their votes in front of the Anchorage Bible Fellowship on Elmore Road, only one woman said she voted to uphold AO-37.
The woman didn't want to use her name, but said that reading a list of municipal employees' salaries in the newspaper convinced her to vote "yes" on the referendum.
The referendum, Ballot Measure 1, was located on the back page of the ballot at the very end, which seemed to be confusing people. Mchen said she almost asked a precinct worker where the referendum was located on the ballot, because she didn't see it at first.
The municipal clerk's office has been receiving those kinds of confused calls all day, said Amanda Moser, deputy clerk. She said several callers even left their polling places and then called to ask if it had been on the ballot.
The placement at the end was simply because it was a municipal issue on the state ballot, said the director of the state elections division, Gail Fenumiai. The last time an Anchorage municipal issue showed up on the state ballot, in 2004, it appeared as a separate ballot, Fenumiai said.
Voters were also complaining about the lack of explanatory language with the measure. Even union members -- unions have been the most vehemently opposed to the changes in AO-37 -- were confused.
Outside of the Anchorage Bible Fellowship, Clarence Olhausen, a carpenter with Carpenters Local 1281, said that when he got to the ballot box, he wasn't sure which way he needed to vote to repeal the measure.
Olhausen said he "went with his gut instinct" voting no.
"Glad I got it right!" he said, told by a reporter that a "no" vote meant repeal.
-- Devin Kelly
Dunbar: Either way, its been a great experience
5:45 p.m., Anchorage
Forrest Dunbar, who was waving signs at the corner of Benson and the New Seward Highway in Anchorage, said win or lose, his campaign for Congress has been a great experience.
"I think we're much closer than people expected us to be," he said of the race against Rep. Don Young. "Who knows, we might even win.
"Either way, it's been a great experience. I'm proud and thankful for my staff and for the volunteer support. It has been amazing."
He said he had great backing in Cordova, where he grew up, and in Anchorage, where he now lives.
-- Dermot Cole
Voting the straight Republican ticket
5 p.m., Nome
Trinh Johnson, 48, owner of Trinh's Floral Shop, said she was drawn to the polls to vote against marijuana legalization and also voted for a Republican slate of candidates.
Johnson, a mother of four boys including one still in high school, said Nome is a small town and kids have the run of it. But that might change if marijuana were readily available.
"We live very liberal, where the kids can run all around here late and parents don't have to really worry about them," Johnson said. She's lived in Nome since she was 8 and isn't affiliated with a political party.
She trusts her kids to do the right thing but also worries for them, especially for the two in college in Washington state, where recreational marijuana already is legal. One told her he sees people smoking at party and they act "weird."
"It's not something our state should be working on," Johnson said.
She said she supported Dan Sullivan for Senate to give a new guy a chance. Health care costs are high in rural Alaska and she questions whether Begich has addressed that.
Gov. Sean Parnell has her support for a return trip to Juneau, she said.
"I don't really know those other guys," Johnson said of challenger Bill Walker and running mate Byron Mallott.
As to the Alaska National Guard scandal that happened during Parnell's watch, she said that "everyone wants to blame instead of trying to fix the problem." Parnell at least is addressing it.
"I still believe in Parnell," Johnson said, recalling how he stepped up when former Gov. Sarah Palin quit mid-term."He was much better than Palin."
-- Lisa Demer
A case of mistaken i-Dan-tity
3:30 p.m., Central Lutheran Church
The case of two Dan Sullivans got at least one Alaska voter.
Fairview resident Daniel Sawyer, 41, said he had planned to vote for incumbent Gov. Sean Parnell but was disappointed when he saw two Dan Sullivans listed on the ballot.
"I didn't think that would be right to run for two offices," he said outside his Anchorage polling place Tuesday afternoon.
Sawyer instead cast his vote for the "unity" ticket of Bill Walker and Byron Mallott and Sen. Mark Begich. When informed by a reporter that the two Dans were actually different candidates, he shrugged it off. Sawyer said he wished the candidates had used different names or at the least different middle initials.
"That's too bad," he said. "I like Parnell. I'm sure he'll win anyway."
-- Suzanna Caldwell
'I'm just disgusted with the party system'
3:30 p.m., Shishmaref
Richard Stasenko, 73, of Shishmaref, said even there on a remote island in the Chukchi Sea, 100 miles southwest of Kotzebue, residents have been bombarded with calls from political pollsters, campaign mailers and ads.
He was tired of the partisan fighting but eager to vote, a supervoter with no party affiliation. He said he showed up at the polls around 9 a.m. and there were maybe four others voting or just finishing up on a mild, overcast day. He voted for Mark Begich, Forrest Dunbar and Bill Walker, against marijuana legalization, for a boost in minimum wage, for new protections for the salmon-rich Bristol Bay watershed.
"I'm just disgusted with the party system that doesn't care what a person does," Stasenko, a retired high school teacher, said. He called Begich "a real statesman" and said he was put off by Republican challenger Dan Sullivan's strategy of running against President Obama.
"He cares about things in a genuine way," Stasenko said of Begich. As to Walker, a Republican running as an independent with Democratic running mate Byron Mallott, he said he admired the way they both gave up something. "It's refreshing," he said.
Gov. Sean Parnell made a mistake when he refused to expand the state's Medicaid insurance system for poor people and now is tainted by the Alaska National Guard mess, Stasenko said.
As to Rep. Don Young, "he's gone off the rails for real this time," Stasenko said, referring to comments on suicide that the congressman made last month at Wasilla High that disturbed and offended students and others.
Marijuana legalization makes no sense considering all the damage already done by alcohol, he said.
"Now we are going to add something else that is harmful in different ways?" he said.
-- Lisa Demer
'I wish there was a better choice'
1:30 p.m., Sears Mall
Don Carlson, who voted at Scenic Park Elementary, says he's an independent-minded Alaska voter. He was against legal marijuana.
"We have enough problems with alcohol already," he said. "Legalizing marijuana will just give us another avenue."
A retired municipal worker, he voted to repeal AO-37. He also voted to increase the minimum wage. He said he voted for Dan Sullivan over Mark Begich, but didn't sound particularly enthusiastic about it.
"I wish there was a better choice," he said.
'Everything is increasing, but wages are still the same'
1 p.m., Sears mall
Anta Joof is originally from the West African nation of Gambia and became a citizen last year. She works in Anchorage as a caregiver. Joof said she voted to increase the minimum wage in Tuesday's election.
"Alaska is very expensive," she said. "You go to the store and everything is increasing, but wages are still the same."
--Michelle Theriault Boots
Talkeetna's Mayor Stubbs launches last-minute Senate write-in campaign
12:51 p.m., Anchorage
A few hours after the polls opened Tuesday, a new Alaska candidate launched his write-in campaign for U.S. Senate.
Here's some clues: The candidate has four paws, one tail, survived a brutal dog attack last year and is already named the unofficial mayor of Talkeetna.
That's right, Stubbs the cat is asking Alaskans for their vote as "the only sensible CATidate running for U.S. Senate in November," according to his campaign.
A press release sent out Tuesday morning provided links to Stubb's campaign launch advertisement and Facebook page. It directed anyone with questions to contact his campaign spokesperson, "Sweet Polly Purebread."
When it comes to Stubb's platform, the release says, he is not only an advocate of Alaskans' Second Amendment rights, but also "pro-fun and pro-good times."
"There is not a single one of Stubbs's opponents who are running on this platform -- so it begs the question -- are they against good times?"
--Tegan Hanlon
Single-digit sign waving
12:47 p.m., Bethel
Ana Hoffman, co-chair of the Alaska Federation of Natives, was one of three Democrats waving signs along Chief Eddie Hoffman Highway during Bethel's noon rush.
AFN endorsed Democrat Mark Begich or U.S. Senate and the BillWalker/Byron Mallott "unity" ticket in the gubernatorial race. No sign wavers were out for the campaigns of Senate Candidate Dan Sullivan or Gov. Sean Parnell. It was in the single digits in the early morning but warmed to 15 degrees by midday.
--Lisa Demer
After a hospital visit, a questioned ballot
11:44 a.m., Bethel
Lisa Charles, 36, is from the village of Newtok and voted a questioned ballot at Bethel's cultural center. Her grandmother is in the hospital in Bethel and she didn't have time to research much ahead of time.
"I was confused on Ballot Measure No. 4 so I got on Facebook to ask my friends," Charles said. She wanted to protect Bristol Bay. They advised her to vote "yes" so she did.
— Lisa Demer
Voting across party lines
11:25 a.m., Bethel
Mike McIntyre, 30, who has a Yupik rock band Frozen Whitefish, voted at the Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center in Bethel. His employer, Association of Village Council Presidents, gave employees time off to vote and also is giving people rides to the polls.
McIntyre said he listened to political speeches during AVCP's convention and decided to vote for independent candidate Bill Walker and Democrat Byron Mallott.
"They sounded genuine," he said. As to other races he voted for "Begich, of course" and U.S. Rep. Don Young.
Young is a character but also "a guy who is out there for us and our people."
--Lisa Demer
Writing in Mickey Mouse
10:29 a.m., Alpenglow Elementary, Eagle River
Hugo Bordin voted at Alpenglow Elementary School in Eagle River. Bordin is a lifelong Alaskan who was born in Kennicott, now a ghost town. He said he will not vote for candidates he feels lack integrity or don't uphold the Constitution.
"I'm very conservative," he said.
Dissatisfied with the candidates running on major party tickets he instead wrote in Joe Miller for Senate and "Mickey Mouse" for Alaska's congressional seat. Bordin is also an elections volunteer who will be working at another Eagle River polling site later today.
--Michelle Theriault Boots
'I like to change people out every once in a while'
9:45 a.m., Trinity Presbyterian Church, South Anchorage
Leaving the polls, Warner Munk said he has lived in Anchorage for 40 years and has never missed a vote except due to emergencies.
To Munk, the U.S. Senate race is the most important race facing voters on Tuesday. Health care and the Affordable Care Act were issues he considered when casting his vote, he said.
Besides the Senate race, Munk noted that he came to the polls because "I like to change people out every once in a while. I don't like people being (in office) for a whole lifetime."
--Laurel Andrews
Relieved it's over
9:38 a.m., Fairview Recreation Center
Fairview voters Graham and Crystal Brumbaugh are relieved the election is over.
"The candidates don't talk about what they are for, they talk about what they're against," Graham said at the Fairview Recreation Center, where they had both voted.
The couple said economic and labor issues topped their list of concerns this election. Both supported a measure that would raise the minimum wage in Alaska and repealing AO-37, the city's controversial labor ordinance.
"People need to make a living," Crystal said.
Rental prices and affordable housing are daily issues for the family: One daughter has to have three roommates to make rent, and the couple would move out of an apartment on an intersection beset by what they describe as problem drinkers if they could afford it. Both also said they'd like to see more police officers in Fairview, especially if it would lead to quicker response times for emergency calls.
--Michelle Theriault Boots
'That's the only reason I came here for'
8:45 a.m., Z.J. Loussac Public Library
A steady stream of voters were trickling into the voting booths at the Z.J. Loussac Public Library in Midtown Anchorage.
Ballot Measure 2 brought 18-year-old Alan Bustamante to the polls.
"That's the only reason I came here for," he said.
"I am a smoker, I think we shouldn't be hiding," Bustamante said.
--Laurel Andrews
Sign waving, breakfast, more sign waving
8:38 a.m., Corner of Benson Boulevard and Seward Highway
Gov. Sean Parnell said he planned to take his sign-waving crew to breakfast at City Diner, then walk around neighborhoods talking to voters this morning. After that: more sign waving.
--Michelle Theriault Boots
'He represents our conservative Alaskan values'
8:33 a.m., Seward Highway and Benson Boulevard
Yolanda Clary campaigned for Congressman Don Young in the median of the Seward Highway on Tuesday morning. "He represents our conservative Alaskan values," she said. "He does stand up for all Alaska."
--Michelle Theriault Boots
Kanye and coffee
8:11 a.m., Northern Lights Boulevard and Seward Highway
At the corner of Northern Lights Boulevard and the Seward Highway, U.S. House of Representatives candidate Forrest Dunbar's sign-waving camp had Kanye West playing from speakers (the music died when the iPhone got too cold and shut down) and thermoses of coffee.
"I'm feeling great," said Dunbar, wearing a shirt and tie under the Carhartt jacket he customarily wears while campaigning, as he grinned at passing cars. "We've got great turnout today."
--Michelle Theriault Boots
The loneliness of the independent candidate
7:55 a.m., Corner of Benson Boulevard and A Street
Independent candidate Phil Isley is running for the state House of Representatives against incumbent Harriet Drummond. As morning traffic peaked, he stood solo on the corner of Benson Boulevard and A Street waving an orange campaign sign. It was 17 degrees.
Isley has run unsuccessfully for the Anchorage Assembly and state House in past elections. An airplane mechanic, he said he is motivated by his belief that Alaska's state spending is out of control.
What had campaigning taught him about his city?
"I have the feeling we're doomed," he said. "But if I don't get out and try, no change will happen. You might as well give it a try."
--Michelle Theriault Boots
Turning out the car horn honks
7:45 a.m., Northern Lights Boulevard and Minnesota Drive
Roughly 35 people waved signs at the intersection of West Northern Lights Boulevard and Minnesota Drive in Midtown Anchorage as the night sky slowly turned to dawn. Supporters held signs for Mark Begich, Matt Claman and Clare Ross. Most stood on the northeast corner; no other campaigns competed for space and car honks at the busy intersection.
Kim Varner-Wetzel was waving a sign for Clare Ross. "I feel a little anxiety because I don't know how the election will swing," she said. One moment "I'm confident, and then I'm nervous."
Larry Mooney waved a Begich sign while holding a cup of coffee. Registered as an undeclared voter, Mooney said Alaska's congressional representatives are "a great team."
"I don't want to change it. Republicans and Democrats," Mooney said.
As he spoke, a man in a red truck stopped at the light began honking repeatedly and didn't stop until the light turned green. "somebody's going nuts out there," Mooney laughed.
--Laurel Andrews
'I've been practicing for months'
7:33 a.m., Northern Lights Boulevard
John Ross stood at the middle median waving a Begich sign and dancing.
"I'm very enthusiastic," Ross said. "I've been practicing for months."
Ross was sent up from Seattle by his employer, the International Chemical Workers Union Longshore and Warehouse Union, to help campaign for Begich. He was one of several people waving signs who had come to Alaska from Outside to work on the election.
--Laurel Andrews
'I gotta make my vote count'
7:31 a.m., Boys & Girls Club, Spenard
Sophie Pinder voted at the Boys & Girls Clubs in Spenard Tuesday morning. "I gotta make my vote count," she said. She was taking a picture of her "I Voted" sticker to post on Facebook, hoping to motivate friends and family to vote too.
--Michelle Theriault Boots
Lining up before polls open
7:02 a.m., Turnagain Elementary
A line of 20 people waited as election workers readied systems to open polls at 7 a.m. sharp. First in line was Francis Comartin. He arrived early because he wanted to make it to his job at ACS on time. He always votes, he said.
"As a citizen, it is very important."
Brianna Baldwin, wearing an Air Force uniform, was second in line. What motivated her to get to the polls? "National Guard," she said.
--Michelle Theriault Boots