While the U.S. presidential contest was decided fairly quickly—with the Associated Press calling Donald Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris early Wednesday, Nov. 6, the morning after voters headed to the polls—in a number of downballot races, two weeks after Election Day, a clear winner has yet to emerge.
Republicans have already secured control of both chambers of Congress, but the margins of their majorities aren’t set.
In the House, the AP has yet to call five races—as of the end of Mon., Nov. 18. And while all the Senate races have been called, one is headed to a recount.
While all election results will be officially certified in the weeks to come, the AP and other media outlets use their own methodologies to “call” race winners based on tabulations of the votes that have been counted and projections about what remains to be counted. The AP is among the most conservative, only calling a race once its Decision Team is “fully confident” that “the trailing candidates no longer have a path to victory.”
Here’s what to know about the races that are still undecided.
Alaska’s at-large House district
Republican challenger Nicholas Begich III is currently leading by about 7,000 votes over Democratic incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola in the race to represent Alaska’s lone congressional district. But elections in Alaska are conducted via ranked-choice voting (also known as instant runoff), which means that if no candidate achieves a majority of first-choice votes, multiple rounds of tabulation are required to reallocate votes from the least popular candidates to whomever each voter ranked as their next choice. Begich has received about 48.5% of first-round votes, according to the Alaska Division of Elections, with some absentee ballots still being counted, while ranked-choice results won’t be available until at least Nov. 20.
Begich, a businessman and the grandson and namesake of a former holder of the same seat and nephew of former Senator Mark Begich…
