Borough Clerk Kacie Paxton, left, and City Clerk Katy Suiter, center, process results from Tuesday’s local election, just delivered to City Hall by Saxman election workers. (KRBD photo by Leila Kheiry)
By late afternoon Wednesday, the Ketchikan canvass board had counted absentee and questioned ballots and added those to the total vote count.
While vote totals changed, the outcome of local races did not.
The board had to hand-count more than 500 absentee and questioned ballots from Tuesday’s local election. The results from that hand-count could have changed the outcome of some close races.
Ketchikan’s local election brought 24 percent of voters to the polls. That equals 2,246 residents, out of the 11,319 registered in the borough.
Leading for the two Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly seats are incumbent Felix Wong (1,345 votes) and Sven Westergard (1,138). Austin Otos was a close third (1,086).
For three school board seats, the top candidates were incumbent Matt Eisenhower (1,511), Sonya Skan (1,300) and Rachel Breithaupt (1,274). Bridget Mattson was close behind Breithaupt, and remained a close fourth after Wednesday’s canvass board count (1,210).
For the two open Ketchikan City Council seats, incumbent Janalee Gage (836) and Sam Bergeron (695) easily won.
Bob Sivertsen ran unopposed for city mayor, and won that position.
Election results still need to be certified by the assembly and city council, and newly elected members sworn in to office. Meetings to do that are scheduled for Monday.
