Alaska Democrat Senate nominee Mary Peltola expanded her first-choice lead over her opponent, Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan, on Monday.

Peltola had 106,321 votes, or 48.47 percent, and Sullivan had 103,804 votes, or 47.33 percent, according to the Division of Elections. Republican Gerald Heikes had 4,865 votes, or 2.22 percent, and Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., the candidate known as “Decoy Dan,” had 3,651 votes, or 1.66 percent.

Monday’s count covered 220,859 ballots, and the Associated Press estimated 76 percent of all ballots cast had been tallied, according to the Juneau Independent. 

Neither candidate has exceeded 50 percent of the first-choice vote. If that holds, the ranked-choice tabulation is set to take place on November 18 and will decide who wins the seat.

The race had already been closely watched as a critical contest. But the election garnered even more scrutiny when it was revealed that members of Peltola’s campaign concocted a scheme to increase her chances of winning.

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They recruited Dan J. Sullivan Jr., because he has the same name as the Republican incumbent. The objective was to confuse Republican voters into casting their votes for the wrong candidate, giving Peltola an advantage.

The campaign denied the allegations after a New York Times report exposed the operation, which involved Peltola campaign aides and a Democrat operative. One former campaign worker said the candidate was not involved in the scheme, but was aware of it.