With the exception of Anchorage, it was municipal election day Tuesday across Alaska.
One high profile race was for the North Slope Borough mayor. Unofficial results are close. Charlotte Brower leads with 559 votes, one percent better than George Ahmaogak, with 535. The third major candidate, Fenton Rexford, is a write-in due to the mail delayed arrival of his filing papers. There are currently 543 write-in ballots, which have not yet been tallied. But if they go to Rexford, they would put him in unofficial second place.
According to public radio station KBRW in Barrow, there is currently no listing for the number of questioned and absentee ballots in that race.
Wasilla incumbent mayor Verne Rupright defeated three challengers, with double the votes of his closest challenger Dianne Woodruff.
Well over a hundred ballots remain to be counted in the City of Bethel municipal election which had six of the 7 city council seats up for grabs. The difference between candidate 6 and 7 is only 23 The top 6 include just one incumbent. The question and absentee ballots are expected to be counte October 12.
Some ballot initiatives, propositions and advisory results:
Sixty percent of Fairbanks voters said “no” to a ballot initiative raising emission standards for home heating stoves.
In Sitka, voters defeated a proposed half-mil property tax increase by a two to one margin, while in Juneau, voters backed renewing a three percent sales tax by well over two to one, but soundly rejected a plastic shopping bag tax.
In an advisory item accompanying the Talkeetna Community Council election, voters opposed the construction of the Susitna-Watana Dam by a margin of 109 to 19.
No results are yet available in the vote over the proposed municipality run alcohol package store for Barrow. The city is currently damp, meaning importation is for private use only. If proposal passed, the city would set up an outlet similar to one currently operating in Kotzebue.
Voter response to the initiative against the proposed Pebble Mine in the Lake and Peninsula Borough might not be known for couple weeks. Mailed ballots won’t be counted until October 17th, when the canvassing board meets. All ballots had to be postmarked no later than Tuesday, October 4th.
No matter what the result, the pro and anti mine issue is still scheduled for the courts.
Ed Ronco is a reporter at KCAW in Sitka.
APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
