Unofficial results are in for Sitka Tribe of Alaska’s tribal council election.

From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday (11-11-25), 147 tribal citizens cast votes at the Sheet’ká Ḵwáan Naa Kahídi and two other polling locations.

Five candidates were running for four open council seats. Incumbent Martha Moses led the race with 116 votes, followed by Gary Puletau-Lang, who received 98 votes. Thonda Stiles received 91 votes and Lawrence “Woody” Widmark received 84 votes. All four scored a seat and will begin their terms in December. 

Incumbent Lesa Way received 67 votes, and was not reelected to the position. Incumbent Frederick Olsen Jr. did not seek re-election.  

“Gunalchéesh ho ho (Thank you very much) to all Tribal Citizens who came out to vote,” Lisa Gassman, Chief Executive Officer for the tribe, said in a press release. “Thank you to all five candidates who ran for Tribal office this year. I’d like to thank Frederick Olsen Jr. and Lesa Way for their service to the Tribe.”

The current terms of office will end on Nov. 30. The oath of office for newly-elected council members will be on Dec. 2 at the tribe’s annual meeting. Terms run through November 2027. 

Incumbent Thor Christianson has narrowly scored the second open seat on the Sitka Assembly, following the city’s count of absentee and questioned ballots Friday afternoon (10-10-25).

Overall, Christianson earned 809 votes, and Sherri Blankenship earned 783, securing the win for Christianson by just 26 votes. 

Following the tabulation of the results at Harrigan Centennial Hall, he said he had been nervous going in.

“A few weeks ago, I said, ‘I think 800 votes wins this.’ And that’s exactly what happened,” Christianson said.

This will be Christianson’s sixth assembly term. He won his first seat in 1998. He said he’s excited to continue work he’s carrying over from his current term.  

“There’s some things I have going now that I didn’t want to stop doing: working on the childcare initiative, working on getting some of the city land on the market in a fashion that actually moves the needle on housing prices, continuing to make sure that the haulout works,” he said. “These are all reasons why I ran so that I didn’t leave mid-stride on some of these things. So now it’s time to get back to work.”

Christianson was one of six candidates vying for two open assembly seats. Katie Riley secured the other seat on Election Day. 

Overall, 2,150 ballots were cast in the 2025 municipal election. The results will be certified at the assembly meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 14. 

Sitkans elected three candidates for seats on the assembly and school board in Tuesday’s (10-7-25) municipal election, but one race is still too close to call. 

Katie Riley — a local fisherwoman and Sitka Conservation Society staffer — beat out the five other Sitka Assembly candidates with 1,300 votes. In an interview on Wednesday, Riley said she’s grateful to the community for showing her support and for the volunteers who helped with her campaign. 

“I want to encourage people to stay engaged, because this is really just the start, right? It’s one step,” Riley said. “There’s going to be other things that need to be voted on. There’s going to be issues that are important to people, that need your input. It’s one thing to hear from everyone about what those important issues are right now, but we need to keep having those conversations so that we can take action.”

With absentee ballots still left to count, and only a 14-vote difference between candidates Thor Christianson and Sherri Blankenship, the second open assembly seat is too close to call. 

Incumbent Paul Rioux swept up the most votes Tuesday, securing his seat for a three-year term on the Sitka School Board. He said he’s honored to be chosen, and was glad to see strong turnout for this year’s election. Rioux said on the campaign trail, voters expressed concerns about high turnover, both in school administration positions and on the board, but he’s hopeful that’s changing.

“Anytime you have turnover like that, it’s kind of disruptive,” he said. “I hope that we’ve turned a corner, and that we are moving into a new phase of building a solid foundation with teamwork, and that the next immediate future is going to be looking bright.” 

Rioux said he is looking forward to working with newcomer Courtney Amundson, who scored the second school board seat — a two-year term. KCAW has reached out to Amundson for comment.

Overall, 2,064 ballots were cast in the 2025 municipal election. More than 70 remaining absentee ballots will be counted on Friday, and the results will be certified at the Sitka Assembly meeting on Oct. 14. 

Unofficial results are in for most communities around the region following Tuesday’s (10-7-25) municipal elections. Official results won’t be ready until early next week, but as of right now, numbers are in for Port Alexander, Pelican, Kake, Angoon, and Tenakee Springs. 

In Port Alexander, seven city council seats were up for grabs with an all write-in ballot . A total of 15 ballots were cast, including 2 absentee ballots. The top seven vote earners  were Patrick Trishman with 15 votes; Michaela Larsen and Cory Gifford with 13 votes each; Ryan Martin and Tom Corso with 12 votes each; Bud Durdle with 10 votes, and Trevor Pollard with 9 votes.  

In Pelican, Barry Bryant was elected mayor with 30 votes. Three city council seats  were also up for grabs. Andrew Rule secured one seat with 33 votes, followed closely by Mike Allard with 25 votes, and Dylan Grafe with 16 votes. For seat 1 on Pelican’s school board, Barry Bryant took the lead with 22 votes, while Andrew Rule led the votes for seat 4 with 30 votes.

Pelican voters also weighed in on two ballot questions. The first asked residents whether they  want to adopt a “manager plan of government.” Voters were in favor of the ballot, 20 to 17. The second ballot question asked whether residents wanted to sell the Blue Bunkhouse in the Salmon subdivision. Pelican law requires a vote for the sale of any  property appraised at $25,000 or more. Voters approved the bunkhouse sale, 25 to 11. 

Overall, 60 ballots were cast, with 21 absentee ballots. These ballots will be counted this Friday at Pelican’s canvass meeting, and results will be certified this upcoming Monday (10-13-25).

In Kake, a total of 150 votes were cast . Two candidates ran unopposed on the ballot for two vacant city council seats. While there were a handful of write-ins, Henry Copsey and Jordana Grant secured the council spots, with 107 and 124 votes, respectively. The race for Kake’s two open school board seats remains tight. However, Corrie Johnson and Heather Gatti are currently in the lead, with 91 votes and 89 votes respectively. Michele Galuszka is in a close third with 87 votes. Officials in Kake will review several questioned ballots, which could change the outcome of that race, at its canvas meeting on October 10. 

In Angoon, Edward Jack Sr. led the charge for city council seat A. For seat B, write-in candidate Samantha Ramey took the lead with 56 votes.  

Finally, in Tenakee Springs, three city council seats were up for grabs. While there were four other write-in candidates, the following three candidates led in votes earned: Linnea Lospenosochatel with 40 votes, Stephen W. Lewis with 37 votes, and Diance McCarty with 30 votes. Overall, 41 ballots were cast, one of which was a questioned ballot. There were five total absentee ballots issued, two of which are outstanding. They will be returned by the time the Canvas board meets on Friday.

Yakutat’s election will be held on October 21st this year. Elfin Cove elected their nonprofit board of directors back in August.

Editor’s Note: This post was updated at 2:16 p.m. on Oct. 8 to include results from Tenakee Springs’ municipal election, as well as the ballots Pelican received for theirs.

This post was updated at 10:21 a.m. on Oct. 9 to include the number of ballots cast in Tenakee Springs’ municipal election.

Updated 10-10-25 at 4 p.m.

Incumbent Thor Christianson narrowly scored the second open seat on the Sitka Assembly, following the city’s count of absentee ballots Friday afternoon (10-10-25). Read the full story here.
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Original Report 10-10-25 at 11:30 p.m.

Voters in Sitka approved a measure Tuesday (10-7-25) to fund future recreation and athletic facilities. What those facilities will look like and how much the project will cost is still unclear, but Proposition 1 removes restrictions on a city hospital fund to pay for the upgrades. 

Right now, the money is set aside to cover retirement costs for former employees of Sitka Community Hospital, which was sold to the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium [SEARHC] in 2019. The fund also takes in about $800,000 a year from the tobacco tax, and city staff anticipate in the coming years there will be a surplus. The measure passed with nearly 61% of the vote on a 720 to 464 vote. 

Ballot Proposition 2 would have required sponsors of future citizen initiatives to fund economic impact studies. It was sponsored by organizers of Safeguard Sitka’s Future, a pro-tourism group of local businesses that previously opposed a citizen initiative to limit cruise tourism earlier this year. The sponsors said requiring economic impact studies from expert, third-party consultants would help make elections more transparent, but some critics said the requirement would “put a price tag on the democratic process.” The measure failed with only 36% of Sitkans voting in favor on a 278 to 485 vote. 

As for candidates, one clear frontrunner swept the Sitka Assembly race. Katie Riley — a local fisherwoman and the Sitka Conservation Society’s deputy director— beat out the five other candidates with 1,300 votes — that’s more than 32% of votes cast. Incumbent Thor Christianson scored 770 votes, followed very closely by local business owner Sherri Blankenship, who trails Christianson by just 14 votes, leaving the second open assembly seat too close to call. As for the other three candidates, Jonathan Wolf received 589 votes, Austin Cranford received 277, and Tracie Castle received 126.

Incumbent Paul Rioux led the race for two open seats on the Sitka School Board with just over 1,500 [1,504] votes. Newcomer Courtney Amundson will also join the board — she came in second with 1,052 votes. The third candidate, Lance Ewers, earned 743 votes. 

Following returns Tuesday night, Municipal Clerk Sara Peterson thanked the 17 poll workers who helped out with the election.

“I always tell them, without them, I wouldn’t be able to do this, but it’s the truth,” Peterson said. “This would not happen without them. So it really takes a village. So I’m so happy and grateful. They did a great job, and everything went smooth, and we had a great turnout. It was steady all day, and it was great to see people. And so it went well.”

The results are unofficial until the Municipal Clerk counts the remaining absentee ballots on Friday, October 10. The results will be certified at the Sitka Assembly meeting next Tuesday (10-14-25).

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify Katie Riley’s role at the Sitka Conservation Society.

Today (10-7-25) is Sitka’s municipal Election Day. Voters have until 8 p.m. to cast their ballots. Polls are now open at Harrigan Centennial Hall for precincts one and two.

This year’s ballot features two propositions, six candidates running for two open seats on the Sitka Assembly, and three candidates running for two seats on the school board. 

Municipal Clerk Sara Peterson said as of Monday, 839 early ballots had been cast. 

“I was very excited with our turnout for early voting,” she said. “We first implemented live voting with early voting in 2023, and for the regular elections, we’ve had a steady increase each year.”

Prior to 2023, Sitka didn’t offer early in-person voting, where ballots are counted on Election Day. Up until then, early votes were counted alongside absentee ballots, but those votes weren’t counted until after Election Day. 

Peterson said she thinks the recent uptick in early voters is because Sitkans are becoming more aware of the new voting option. And, she said, whenever there are propositions on the ballot, it tends to bring people out.

“It’s been great,” she said. “Folks are engaged, and I think that’s wonderful. They’re exercising their right to vote.”

Peterson said as for today, there’s been a steady stream of voters at Centennial Hall.    

Tune in to Raven Radio tonight for election returns starting at 8 p.m. 

Absentee by mail, fax and email votes will be counted on Friday. Election results will be certified at the Sitka Assembly meeting next Tuesday (10-14-25), where the newly-elected officials will take an oath of office.

Candidates seeking a seat on the Sitka Assembly gathered at Southeast Resort last week (9/24/25) to discuss local issues and answer questions from the public.  

The two-hour event put on by the Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce was briefly interrupted by a fire alarm. Despite a speedy evacuation and some chaos, candidates were able to share their views on a wide range of local issues, from how they’d support the local business community to their thoughts on police body cameras.

Five of the six assembly candidates participated in the live program, answering pre-provided questions from the Chamber of Commerce and questions posed by locals. Candidate Tracie Castle did not participate. In contrast to other forums this season that primarily focused on issues like housing and childcare, the chamber also asked candidates how they’d reduce barriers to business development, if elected.

You can listen to Part 1 here:

You can listen to Part 2 here:

Sitka’s municipal election is Oct. 7. You can find more information here.

Sponsors of two ballot propositions that will be put to Sitka voters in October joined KCAW Thursday (9-18-25) to discuss the issues and answer locals’ questions. 

Chris McGraw is a sponsor of Proposition 2, which would require future citizen initiatives to include independent studies spelling out the potential impact on Sitka’s economy. Assembly members Chris Ystad and Kevin Mosher are co-sponsors of Proposition 1, which would lift restrictions on a city hospital fund to pay for upgrades to local recreational and athletic facilities.

Listen here:

You can find audio from KCAW’s forums with this year’s assembly and school board candidates, along with candidate interviews, a candidate questionnaire, and a sample ballot for the upcoming Oct. 7 municipal election at Raven Radio’s Election Center.

Candidates vying for a seat on the Sitka Assembly gathered in Raven Radio’s air room on Tuesday (9-16-25) to discuss issues important to Sitkans and how they’d govern if elected.

Five of the six assembly candidates participated in the hour-and-a-half program, answering questions posed by locals. Topics ranged from the role of local government in addressing Sitka’s housing crisis and childcare, to how the assembly can foster better relationships with underrepresented communities.

Listen here:

You can find audio from KCAW’s forum with this year’s school board candidates, along with candidate interviews, a candidate questionnaire, and a sample ballot for the upcoming Oct. 7 municipal election at Raven Radio’s Election Center.

KCAW has not yet received a questionnaire response from Lance Ewers. Listen to our interview with him here.