Update, Friday morning:
Officials have now tallied a third batch of votes in Anchorage’s mayoral runoff election.
According to the update posted Thursday night, Suzanne LaFrance now has a more than 5,000 vote lead over incumbent Mayor Dave Bronson. She has about 54 percent of the vote to Bronson’s 46 percent. More than 71,000 votes have been tallied so far. As of Friday, officials with the clerk’s office said they’d received a total of 78,432 ballots, but they were still counting.
Original story:
Anchorage mayoral candidate Suzanne LaFrance is maintaining her lead over incumbent Dave Bronson in the city’s runoff election, after more than 8,700 additional ballots were counted on Wednesday.
With the latest batch of results, LaFrance, a former Assembly chair, now has about 54 percent of the vote to Bronson’s 46 percent.
LaFrance’s lead has narrowed slightly from election night, going from about a 10-point lead on Tuesday to about an eight-point lead now.
If she maintains her lead, LaFrance will become the first woman elected to be Anchorage mayor.
In total, roughly 59,000 votes have been tallied so far. By the end of Wednesday, officials with the city clerk’s office reported they’d received more than 67,000 ballots, with thousands more likely to come in.
Election results will be certified on May 31. The beginning of the next three-year Anchorage mayoral term will start on July 1.
RELATED: Suzanne LaFrance poised to be Anchorage’s first elected female mayor
Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
