Anchorage Daily News

JUNEAU - Alaska election officials say U.S. Rep. Don Young has won the Republican primary battle over the state's only seat in the House.

In a close race only decided Wednesday with the final counting of about 350 outstanding absentee and questioned ballots, Young beat Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell by 304 votes.

State election officials will certify the election on Thursday.

Parnell has said he may ask for a recount. Election officials have said a recount of the Aug. 26 vote could take up to 10 days to complete.

Since the primary, Young has held a slim lead over Parnell, who had the backing of his popular boss, Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate.

Young is next slated to face Democrat Ethan Berkowitz in the general election.

"We need to wait and see what the lieutenant governor does now. The move's in his court. We'll see where we go from here," said Mike Anderson, Young's campaign spokesman.

Young was in Washington, D.C., where it was 11:12 p.m. when results came in. Anderson said he promised the congressman that he would not wake him up.

"We were confident going into this with the preliminary reports we had that the count was actually increasing his numbers and it looks like that trend continued," he said.

Attempts to reach Parnell, who was traveling to Fairbanks on Wednesday, were not immediately successful.

Young finished with 48,195 votes; Parnell had 47,891 votes.

ADVERTISEMENT