Borough releases final election results

PALMER — Tim Hale trailed Brian Endle by two votes in the race for Jim Sykes’ Mat-Su Borough Assembly District 1 seat headed into the Canvass and Review Board process for certifying the election. At around 3:20 p.m. on Tuesday, Hale sauntered out of the room where the Canvas Board had counted and certified votes with a smile on his face, hugged his wife Tara and high-fived his daughter Eliza.

“I want to thank all the people who voted, whether it was for me or any other candidate in the race. Voter participation has been down recently and if we want to have a more responsive and engaged government, we need to be more responsive and engaged citizens so I want to thank everybody who supported me and everyone who voted no matter who they voted for,” Hale said.

Hale defeated Endle by 25 votes, 1,135 to 1,110 following the certification of the election by the Mat-Su Borough Canvas Board. The assembly will hold a meeting to certify the election on Nov. 19 and newly elected assembly members will take the oath of office on Nov. 25.

Hale and Endle had been in a packed field before Bruce Bush and Ryan Miller both dropped out and threw their support behind Endle, who also received an endorsement from Gov. Mike Dunleavy. Bush garnered 134 total votes, Miller received 26 and six write-in ballots were cast. The 25-vote margin of victory was the smallest in any assembly or school board race in 2019, but not by much. Jim Hart defeated current District 2 School Board Member Ray Michaelson by 27 votes.

“I’m grateful for the win. It was no small feat when you’re running against somebody the caliber of Mr. Michaelson. He’s a very well known, very well liked person. It’s not the easiest race so I don’t take it lightly,” Hart said.

Hart received 689 total votes and Michaelson received 662 with 12 write-in votes cast. Stephanie Nowers retained her lead over LaMarr Anderson for the seat on the assembly in District 2. With a 99-vote lead on election night last Tuesday, Nowers increased her lead by 40 votes, defeating Anderson 717 to 578. Liz Maxson received 80 votes, Faunus Doney received 41 and 11 write-in votes were cast.

Hale sat in the room where the Canvass Board counted votes with Endle, District 9 Republican Party Chair Carol Carman and outgoing District 1 Assemblyman Jim Sykes.

“I enjoyed watching the process. I think it’s a very good process and we made sure that all the votes that should’ve been counted got counted and we came out with the win in the end. I want to thank my wife and daughter for being so supportive I want to thank everybody who supported my campaign,” Hale said.

Hale and Nowers will replace outgoing assemblymen Sykes and Deputy Mayor Matthew Beck. The Mat-Su School Board will have three new members with victories from Hart, District 5 School Board Member Ryan Ponder and Jeff Taylor in District 7. Taylor replaces outgoing School Board President Dr. Donna Dearman. Taylor ran unopposed and was the only candidate who could celebrate a clear victory on election night.

“Honestly I’m going in a little bit, not worried but, we’ve got a lot to do,” Taylor said. “We’ve got to get that school figured out in Houston, we’ve got teachers contracts, we’ve got just a ton of huge things to get figured out and hopefully do it quickly so I’m excited to dive into the middle of that and get those things solved.”

Taylor has been flipping through the 540-page budget document and is also excited to begin budget deliberations with the rest of the school board. Hart held a 26-vote lead heading into the election certification and added one more ballot to his lead, defeating Michaelson by just 27 votes to with the school board seat in District 2.

“We have our hands full. Of course with having to hire the new superintendent, that’s going to be a top priority,” Hart said. “We need to get those test scores up. We need to find a way to find out what the problem is and dig as deep as we have to and as wide as we need to to find out what the common thread is.”

Ponder held a 113-vote-lead over Alma Hartley on election night. Ponder received 344 total votes in District 5 over 208 for Hartley with eight write-in votes cast. The Review Board and Canvass Board counted over 800 questioned, absentee and special needs ballots in the last week. A total of 4,249 votes were cast at the polls on Election day. The Canvass Board counted 93 of the 162 total questioned ballots as eligible, and 576 of the 577 absentee and special needs ballots requested were counted as eligible. The number of total ballots submitted was 4,987 and 4,899 of those were counted as eligible. In the closest race during this election cycle, 24 of Endle’s 1,110 votes came from questioned ballots, the highest number of questioned ballots cast for any candidate. However, Hale dominated the absentee column, receiving 145 of his 1,135 votes through absentee ballots, 43 higher than the next closest candidate. The 88 ballots cast that were not counted were either cast by a voter who had not registered 30 days prior to the election, is registered at the incorrect address or violation of Alaska Statute 15.05.010. Borough staff said that at this time, no recount efforts have been filed.