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In the months leading up to Election Day, pollsters predicted that Alaska was on the verge of turning blue, Mayor Mark Begich would be our next U.S. Senator and Ethan Berkowitz would oust Rep. Don Young.

But on Nov. 4, nothing turned out as predicted.

David Dittman and Ivan Moore are Alaska's top pollsters. They have nearly 60 years of experience between the two of them. Both said last week's results have stunned them.

Dittman says the media is to blame.

"I do think the people who would have voted for Begich and Berkowitz stayed home because they thought their vote wouldn't have been needed, and the Division of Elections and the media was forecasting long lines outside in cold weather," Dittman said.

Moore takes a different tack.

"What it's an issue of is that people who came out on Tuesday were radically different in makeup from the people who were polled, despite the fact that people who were polled were a representative sample," Moore said. "It's the people who came out on Election Day that were the unrepresentative sample because so many Republican votes came out in support of Gov. Sarah Palin for vice president and in defense of Sen. Ted Stevens even after his conviction."

Elections

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officials say preliminary numbers show that just over 60 percent of the 495,000 Alaskans who were registered to vote actually showed up at the polls.

Pollsters say elections like this one are rare.

"I think the public needs to know there's the possibility something different is going to happen," Dittman said. "The polls are not going to predict an ironclad future."

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