The race to fill one Anchorage Assembly seat appears headed to a recount.
After almost two weeks of counting thousands of ballots cast in Anchorage’s city election, Janice Park leads Dave Donley by just 41 votes. The race is to replace Felix Rivera as a Midtown Anchorage Assembly member after Rivera reached his term limit.
City code dictates that a recount be held if a candidate leads by less than 0.5% of the vote. Park was ahead by just 0.38%, as of Friday night, when the last batch of election results was released.
A third candidate, Kim Winston, did not campaign heavily and received 396 votes, or about 3.67% of the total.
City elections clerk Liz Edwards said a decision on whether to hold a recount will be made Thursday after a Public Session of Canvass, a meeting where the Anchorage Election Commission will review any rejected ballots. It’s also the deadline for when mail-in ballots and any ballot cures, or fixes, must be received.
The recount is tentatively scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday.
Other election results are not as close.
Incumbent Assembly members George Martinez, Zac Johnson and Anna Brawley are all poised to continue representing East, South and West Anchorage, respectively. Sydney Scout currently leads all challengers to fill Chris Constant’s North Anchorage seat on the Assembly, while Donald Handeland is poised to replace Scott Myers in representing Eagle River/Chugiak.
Like Rivera, Constant is also term-limited. Myers opted not to run for reelection.
Most ballot propositions are currently on track to pass with three exceptions.
Voters are narrowly rejecting two education-related proposals. One would have levied a one-time tax increase to pay for about 80 public school teachers, while the other was a bond that would’ve funded a number of capital improvements to schools across the district.
A public safety bond proposition that would have funded building upgrades and a parking lot renovation at the Anchorage Police Department's Elmore station is also failing.
In total, the City Clerk’s office has counted more than 66,000 ballots for this year’s election, representing a roughly 10% increase in voter participation from the 2025 election.
The 2026 election results are set to be certified during the Anchorage Assembly’s next meeting on April 28.
