JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump promised repeatedly during his campaign to expand oil drilling in the U.S., which is good news for political leaders in Alaska, where oil is the economic lifeblood and many felt the Biden administration has obstructed efforts to boost the state’s diminished production.

The top four candidates on the general election ballot included a Democrat serving a 20-year prison sentence in New York.

The Alaska Division of Elections released the results from 17,000 ballots Friday, but thousands of additional ballots remain to be counted, according to figures provided by the division. The latest count,

Republican Nick Begich has ousted incumbent Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola to win Alaska’s lone House seat, Decision Desk HQ projects. That marks 220 seats for Republicans, surpassing the 218 needed to control the chamber.

Statewide, an estimated 30,000-35,000 absentee, questioned and early votes remain to be counted. Atqasuk was the last precinct to report results from Election Day itself. Carol Beecher, director of the Division of Elections, said workers also added scanned ballots from the town of Coffman Cove, in Southeast Alaska.

Alaska elections officials added more than 8,500 ballots to the statewide count Wednesday afternoon, but the new ballots didn’t change the leaders of any races. More significantly, the Alaska Division of Elections reported almost 5,

Arthur Sammy Heckman Sr. has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of unlawful interference with an election after illegally canceling a local 2023 election and hiding the results of a 2022 election while serving as acting mayor of Pilot Station.

Republican U.S. House candidate Nick Begich III moved closer to defeating Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola after 46,000 additional Alaska ballots were counted by Wednesday. Begich was ahead by 10,133 votes before Tuesday’s ballot count. He now leads by 9,435 votes, or just over 3%.

An employee of the Alaska Division of Elections sorts election material on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, at division headquarters in Juneau. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) Republican U.S. House candidate Nick Begich has almost clinched an electoral ...

Some absentee and early votes are set to be counted on Tuesday, but Alaskans may need to wait until Nov. 20 for clear results.

While final results and tabulation are still a few weeks away, preliminary election results can tell us a lot about the future of ranked choice voting, the minimum wage, and the makeup of the 2025 legislature.

View live results of the Alaska presidential election. See maps of county-by-county presidential election results in the race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.