Anchorage Daily News

Rep. Don Young's ever so slender lead over Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell in the Republican primary for Alaska's seat in the U.S. House first narrowed and then grew wider Friday night as elections workers counted 25,000 absentee and questioned ballots from the Aug. 26 primary election.

At midnight Friday, Young led by 172 votes with absentees from three Anchorage House districts -- 29, 30 and 31 -- still out, said Division of Elections director Gail Fenumiai. Young won all three districts on election night, although by fairly small margins.

Election workers continued counting into the early morning hours.

The latest tally, posted on the division's Web site at about 9:30 p.m., showed Young with a 172-vote edge -- 47,422 to 47,250. An earlier partial absentee count posted about 5:15 p.m. Friday showed Young's lead narrowing to 129 votes.

Before Friday's count, Young led by 151 votes. The first burst of absentee returns shrank that to 129 votes, and a second round of returns at about 9:30 Friday pushed his lead up to 172 votes.

Absentee votes cast and mailed from overseas will be accepted until Wednesday, when they will be counted. About 250 sample ballots from Petersburg and Wrangell -- cast when precinct workers there ran out of the regular Republican candidate ballots -- were included in Friday night's count.

A recount seems likely.

Young was attending a fundraiser in Roslyn, Wash., Friday night, according to campaign spokesman Mike Anderson.

In a statement e-mailed about 7 p.m. Alaska time, Young said his continuing hair-thin lead was encouraging but not the last word. He said, however, that he is campaigning as if he will be the party's candidate in the Nov. 4 general election, where Democrat Ethan Berkowitz awaits.

"While I am pleased to hold the lead at this stage of the process, it appears as if we won't know the final results for another two weeks," Young said in the statement.

Parnell's campaign e-mailed a statement Friday afternoon, before the vote update.

"Given that the current difference in votes is so small, anything can happen and we remain cautiously optimistic about the results," Parnell said via e-mail.

Earlier in the day, Anderson said the Young campaign was hoping to see the 18-term incumbent's lead open up significantly with the absentee count.

"The worst thing that could happen is if the number stays close," Anderson said.

A recount is likely if the race remains this close. Under state law, the expense of the recount would be paid by the state if the difference between Young or Parnell is within 0.5 percent of the overall vote for the two. In this case, that would be around 500 votes.

The losing candidate, or 10 qualified voters, could still request a recount if the difference is more than that, but would have to put down a $10,000 deposit on the cost, according to the law. The deposit can be refunded if the recount changes the outcome, or under other certain other conditions.

A third candidate in the Republican primary for the U.S. House seat, state Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, trailed far behind. Latest results put her at 9,728 votes.

Anderson said Young plans to return to Washington, D.C., Monday as the congressional session resumes, and Young will have to balance campaigning with those responsibilities, the spokesman said.

The U.S. House primary race was the only contest on the ballot where the outcome was in doubt pending the absentee ballot counting.

Reporter Don Hunter can be reached at dhunter@adn.com or 257-4349.

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