The polls have closed and the numbers are in…well about half of them, anyway. KCAW’s Katherine Rose reports on how municipal election results looked, as of Tuesday night, and who the front-runners are as officials prepare to count over 1,700 more ballots Wednesday afternoon:
Sitkans really took advantage of early voting this year. Just over 1700 residents cast their ballots by mail, fax, and early in-person voting over the two weeks leading up to the municipal election.
One could have expected that as a result, fewer folks would turn out on election day, but volunteer Dorothy Orbison, who oversees Precinct 2, said the turnout on October 6 was steady.
“We’ve had a few flurries with short lines. In general we’ve had no lines, but a steady trickle, all day long, so we’re at a very decent turnout for a municipal election,” she said. “So when you add all of the enthusiastic participation that we had for the early voting, this is a great turnout.”
Orbison said that although the turnout was high for a municipal election, she still expects to see more for the presidential election in November. But, even so, the crowd was a diverse representation of Sitka voters.
“We see the usuals plus so fresh new faces with their first-time voting, which is always a treat,” she said. “But yeah, many neighbors that we haven’t seen for a few elections have decided to turn out this time.”
So far here are the results: Out of around 1500 ballots cast on election day, Steven Eisenbeisz is narrowly leading incumbent Gary Paxton in the mayor’s race by around 28 votes. Eisenbeisz received 801 votes with both precincts reporting, Paxton received 773.
Of the eight assembly candidates running for office, Crystal Duncan and Rebecca Himschoot are leading the charge with 858 votes and 721 votes respectively. Candidates Amy Bethune and Marshall Albertson are trailing closely behind. Bethune received 524 votes, Albertson received 487.
Of the three school board candidates incumbent Andrew Hames is the clear frontrunner, with 1247 votes. Cass Pook is narrowly ahead of incumbent Blossom Twitchell. Pook received 748 votes, and Twitchell received 706 votes.
But it’s too soon to tell whether those candidates will remain in the lead once the 1700 early- and absentee votes are counted. That process begins Wednesday at noon. and results will be posted sometime around 5 p.m.
