Alaska voter turnout for this year's election appears now on track to be the highest ever.

That's contrary to hand-wringing about why Alaskans didn't show up for this historic election, and even some speculation that ballots weren't being counted.

"I think people were premature to jump to conclusions that voter turnout was very low. It's apparent that a large number of people in this state chose to vote absentee versus in person on Election Day," said Gail Fenumiai, state elections division director.

The state will count the final absentee and questioned ballots Tuesday -- about 24,000 of them. Even if a third of the questioned ballots are disqualified, that will put the turnout above 320,000, the most Alaskans who have ever voted.

What's unusual this year is that nearly a third of the ballots weren't counted until after Election Day. That's because of the record number of Alaskans who chose to vote early and absentee.

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