Tuesday was primary day in Alaska and, well, there was a little event going on that diverted our attention, so I wanted to give an update of Tuesday's results.

• On the House side, Alaska House Minority Leader Ethan Berkowitz easily dispatched Diane Benson in the Democratic primary. Whom he will challenge in November, however, is still uncertain and won't be decided for a few weeks.

  In the primary for the state's lone House seat, [GOP incumbent Don] Young led Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell by 152 votes, or 0.16 percent, with 99 percent of precincts reporting Wednesday. [...]

  "We're not going to finish counting absentee and [provisional] ballots until Sept. 5," said Gail Fenumiai, director of the state Division of Elections. "We have thousands of absentee ballots to be counted."

  Once the counting is finished, she said, a state board will spend seven to 10 days reviewing the results, a step that is part of every contest, regardless of the margin. The results will be officially certified by Sept. 16 or 17. Only then can the loser request a full recount, which would take at least a few days to complete.

  Considering the recent polling, we should hope that Swing State Project is right when they project the absentee ballots to expand Young's lead but interestingly, they're also reporting that Young has refused to rule out running as an independent if he loses.

• On the Senate side, Road to 60 candidate Mark Begich officially became the Democratic nominee for the Senate from Alaska and indicted incumbent Ted Stevens became -- for now -- the Republican nominee having won 63% of the vote among a 7 candidate field.

  Considering Begich is up 18% in the Pollster trend estimate, it's possible that Stevens will be pressured out of the race, which would mean the Alaska Republican Party would get to choose a replacement candidate, so it's important to continue to support Mark Begich over at our Road To 60 ActBlue page.