Former Republican Gov. Sarah Palin won the statewide count in the June 11 special primary election, but former Bethel Democratic state Rep. Mary Peltola was the top vote-getter in state House District 33, which encompasses Haines, Skagway and downtown Juneau.

Peltola led the district with 29.82% of the 5,598 ballots in the district, followed by nonpartisan Al Gross, a retired Petersburg surgeon and commercial fisherman, at 24.27%. Palin collected 10.64% of the votes in the heavily Democratic district.

Statewide, Palin received 27.02% of the votes, followed by Republican Nick Begich at 19.13%, Gross at 12.63% and Peltola at 10.06%.

Gross, however, dropped out of the race late Monday, a day before the Division of Elections released the final count. He did not provide a reason.

There were 48 candidates vying to fill the short vacancy created by U.S. Rep. Don Young’s death in March.

Under Alaska’s ranked-choice voting – new this year – the top four primary vote-getters would advance to the general election. But Gross’ decision to drop out leaves only the top three to move to the Aug. 16 general election to fill the unexpired term until January. The Division of Elections announced Tuesday that, under the law, the fifth-place finisher does not move up to fill out the fourth slot.

A separate election, with about half as many candidates, will be held to fill the full two-year term of Alaska’s only member of the U.S. House. That primary will be held Aug. 16 – the same day as the general election to fill the unexpired term – with the general election Nov. 8 to select a member of Congress for the next two years.

Peltola, a Yup’ik Eskimo, represented the Bethel region in the Alaska House of Representatives from 1999 to 2009 and then served as executive director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

About 4.5% of the 164,644 ballots cast statewide were rejected by state elections officials, with much higher rejection rates in rural communities. In House District 33, the figure is lower, at 2.6% – or 139 ballots. Tiffany Montemayor, public relations manager for Division of Elections, said more information about rejected ballots will be released after the State Review Board certifies election results on Saturday.

Montemayor said ballots can be rejected if they are missing information – such as witness signature or date of birth – or if they were postmarked after June 11. Ballots that do not arrive by June 21 will not be counted even if they were postmarked by election day.