Photos and Story by Len Anderson, KSKA – Anchorage
Today Anchorage’s Election Commission is counting the previously untallied ballots from the April 5th municipal election. At the public canvass meeting (right photo) before the count began, commission chair Maria Clemson announced there was a total of 6,028 absentee and questioned ballots.
Some of those were received by April 5th and had already been counted. Approximately 3,400 absentee and questioned ballots remained. The rejected questioned and absentee envelopes numbered 115. The three most common reasons for rejection were Not Registered, Registered Late and Insufficient Witness.
The counting process is taking place at the commission’s first floor office at city hall (above photo) and will likely continue until early this evening, when the commission will announce the final results
The closest city-wide race which might be impacted by today’s counting is School Board Seat C. Less than one percent separates leader Pat Higgins (17,113) and Bob Griffin (16,927). The closest assembly race is Seat I. The two leaders are Adam Trombley (3,196) and Mike Gutierrez (2,944). However, unlike the school board race which is city-wide, in the assembly race only absentee and questioned ballots from that district would impact the final results.
Among the municipal wide propositions, the closest is Proposition 10. It proposes a change to the municipal charter allowing a municipal agency to replace sworn police officers issuing downtown parking tickets. The current tally is yes, 20,471, and no, 19,899.
The Anchorage Assembly will certify the results at its next meeting on Tuesday, April 19th.
- Official Count Results (PDF)
