Palin defeat immediately denounced as election fraud on Trump’s social media platform

Mary Peltola edged out former Alaskan governor in the state’s special election

Unsubstantiave claims of election fraud have been brought up on Donald Trump’s social media platform soon after former Alaska governer Sarah Palin lost in the state’s special election to Democrat Mary Peltola.

Ms Peltola on Wednesday edged out Ms Palin in a historic win to become the first Democrat to represent Alaska in Congress in 50 years.

She will also be the first Native Alaskan to represent the state after it formally joined the union in 1959.

But users on Truth Social were quick to denounce her victory and made claims, without showing evidence, of the election being rigged.

Attorney Ron Filipkowski posted a series of screenshots from Truth Social which showed users claiming that the election was stolen.

“Naturally, on Truth Social, the election was stolen from Sarah Palin,” he tweeted.

“Republicans way outnumber Democrats in Alaska. Something is fishy,” wrote one user.

Another user wrote: “Alaska is stealing them with this way of voting, it’s rigged.”

“Ranked choice. What a way to steal an election,” said another.

Under Alaska’s new ranked-choice voting system, the top four voter recipients head to the general election.

In the general election, voters rank their choices in order of preferences.

After the first round of votes are counted, the candidate who earned the fewest number of votes is eliminated and voters’ second choice earns their votes.

This continues until one candidate receives more than half the vote.

The system has been criticised by Arizona Republican senator Tom Cotton, who tweeted after Ms Palin’s loss: “Ranked-choice voting is a scam to rig elections.”

Alaska’s sole congressional seat opened earlier this year after the death of Don Young, the longest-serving Republican congressman.

Ms Peltola will serve till January and will then again have to run for a full term.

She will be running against Ms Palin again along with Nick Begich and Libertarian candidate Chris Bye after fellow Republican Tara Sweeney ended her campaign.