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There’s a special election happening now in Alaska, and it’s got some pretty interesting candidates. One is former Alaska Governor, and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin and another is Santa Claus. There are 48 people running in all.

Santa Claus certainly looks the part, and that is his real name. He also lives in North Pole, Alaska but he’s a Democratic Socialist, so we hope his chances are slim.

The hotly contested race is to replace former Representative Don Young, who died in March at 88 after representing Alaska in the House since 1973, reports CNN. This will be the first time Alaska uses open primaries and ranked-choice voting, which was implemented after ballot measure in 2020, reports NBC news.

Sarah Palin was a late entry in the contest, but she was swiftly endorsed by Donald Trump. He wanted to express his appreciation for her endorsement of him in the 2016 election.

Alaskans had to cast mail in ballots for single candidates in an open, nonpartisan primary race. They had 48 candidates to choose from and were required to mail the ballots back in by Saturday, June 11, explained CNN.

NBC News explained that “t]he top four vote-getters will advance to the general election, in which voters rank four candidates in order of preference. Any candidate who gets more than 50 percent of the vote wins the race. If no one gets a majority, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated, and ballots cast for the eliminated candidate are recast for voters’ second choices. The elimination and retabulation process continues until only two candidates are left. The candidate with the most votes wins.”

The early results showed Palin, endorsed by Donald Trump, with 29.8% of the votes counted so far; Republican Nick Begich had 19.3%; independent Al Gross had 12.5%; Democrat Mary Peltola with 7.5%; and Republican Tara Sweeney had 5.3%, reports The Guardian. The special election is scheduled for August 16.

Looks like Santa Claus may not be in the final running after all. Thank goodness for that, at least for Alaskans. This country definitely does not need anymore Democratic Socialists in Congress. Would you like to see Sarah Palin back in politics?