Candidates won't concede with votes still to be counted

WASILLA — Little was settled by Wednesday afternoon in the hotly-contested race for Mat-Su Borough Mayor, while other outcomes seemed more certain as candidates took stock of Tuesday’s election results.

The slow process of final counting began Wednesday morning. Borough officials began the certification process Monday at 10 a.m. and the process of sorting through 2,307 absentee, questioned and special needs votes could take a week, according to borough spokeswoman Patty Sullivan. The election will remain unofficial until the borough assembly certifies the final result at its Oct. 20 meeting.

The mayoral race between incumbent Larry DeVilbiss and challengers Vern Halter, and Rosemary Vavrin had weeded out at least one candidate. Vavrin picked up 317 votes out of an otherwise very tight race between Halter and DeVilbiss, who remained separated by 179 votes Wednesday morning. Halter was leading with 4,269 votes (49 percent) compared to 4,090 (47 percent) for DeVilbiss.

Nevertheless, Vavrin sounded upbeat when reached via phone.

“I’m not surprised because I don’t have as much political savvy as the two other candidates,” she said. “I’m feeling fine. It was a good experience. I wish I had done something like this a little earlier in life.”

In other results from Tuesday's vote, a measure to ban pot businesses in Palmer appeared to be passing, a Wasilla sales tax reduction looked imminent and Houston's pot business ban looked like it would go down to a narrow defeat.

DeVilbiss hadn’t conceded defeat in the mayor's race Wednesday, and both he and Halter they were waiting to see the final tally rather than jumping to conclusions.

“I’m not declaring victory or anything,” Halter said.

Even so, waiting was easier with more votes, Halter said.

DeVilbiss, a Lazy Mountain farmer, returned a phone call surrounded by 20 sides of beef, and said he was working to catch up with farm work postponed in order to conduct a campaign. The election’s result was out of his hands, DeVilbiss said.

“I’ll leave my commentary and analysis until it’s over,” he said.

Voter turnout was about 13 percent. Voter turnout in Willow — Halter’s hometown — was highest, with better than 30 percent turnout. Seven precincts reported turnout rates less than 10 percent. Wasilla Lake reported the lowest at 7.37 percent.

In the assembly races, narrow margins separated most candidates. The closest race in percentage terms was between Doyle Holmes and Randall Kowalke, who were separated by just 52 votes, or 3 percentage points. Holmes led with a handy margin as votes were reported Tuesday night, until clerks were able to relocate ballots from a malfunctioning Talkeetna Accuvote machine to another, working machine at the Houston City Hall. When counted and added about 11:30 a.m., the Talkeetna results bolstered Kowalke’s totals within striking distance of Holmes. Kowalke picked up about 70 percent of the total votes cast in the Talkeetna 1 precinct.

The results were irregular, Holmes said.

“This kind of almost assaults the senses to think that kind of vote difference is so skewed from the rest of the borough,” he said.

He said the number also differed from an informal poll his campaign conducted about a week before the election.

“It’s highly irregular that something like this would happen to change results that much, especially since the rest of the area up that way was fifty-fifty,” he said.

Kowalke was also hedging as he collected campaign signs along the Talkeetna Spur Road Wednesday afternoon. He estimated between 350 and 375 ballots remained to be counted. About 75 were from Talkeetna.

“I’m clearly not conceding,” he said.

He attributed his wide Talkettna margin to an unlikely political alliance between conservatives and more environmentally minded groups.

“There’s a smaller group of quote-unquote conservatives up there who have had some history with my opponent,” he said.

Other assembly races appeared more settled on Wednesday. George McKee led Maria Serrano by a 13 percent margin, the same cushion incumbent appointee Barbara Doty had over challenger Bob Doyle.

Several ballot questions split voters in city elections. Voters in Palmer and Houston split the difference in identical anti-marijuana resolutions, though the margin remained razor-thin in Houston on Wednesday. If Palmer’s passes, it will mean pot-related businesses will be barred from the city.

Wasilla and Houston voters appeared to reject a pair of tax measures: a continuation of a one-percent rate for the library in Wasilla, and a one percent increase in Houston.

In East Talkeetna, voters signed up to join a flood and erosion control district, and voters in central Talkeetna voted to accept them.

School board incumbents carried the day. Kelsey Trimmer held a five percent margin over challenger Wade Long in the race for Seat E. Debby Retherford and Sarah Welton had each trounced last-minute write-in challengers Mike Coons and Sacha Pettit.

It could be the last at-large format for the board. Voters also appeared to approve a geographic structure for the board in one of two boroughwide ballot initiatives, and rejected a measure that would have moved borough election days to coincide with state and national election days on even-numbered years.

At the city level, Palmer voters pushed Pete LaFrance, a veteran of a losing legislative campaign to Alaska Rep. Shelley Hughes last year, over the top with 35 percent of the vote in the at-large campaign. Two Palmer candidates: incumbent Richard Best and Kenni Linden, had received exactly 140 votes apiece, tying for second place 34 votes ahead of incumbent Kenneth Erbey. The top two vote-getters receive spots on the council.

LaFrance credited name recognition from his state campaign with lifting him to the council. That, and shoe leather.

“I think (name recognition) is definitely part of it,” he said. “I worked hard to try and connect with as many people as possible.”

Best said LaFrance ran a powerful campaign.

“Mr. LaFrance, he’s looking like he smacked it out of the park. He had campaign posters and flyers. It was pretty smooth.”

Professional campaigning might signal the end of Palmer’s folksiness, and might also signal an end to his role in public office, Best said.

“It might be my last hurrah,” he said.

Linden congratulated LaFrance, and said she was glad voters were able to recognize her despite the recent change of her maiden name from Psenak to Linden.

“I’m excited to see that we did have a higher turnout than we did last year,” she said.

Palmer precincts saw about 17 percent turnout.

“I’m really excited,” she said. “If am able to join the city council next week, then I’m really interested in making sure that Palmer can continue to be one of the bet places in the states to live, work, and play.”

In Wasilla, challenger Tim Burney had apparently unseated Alvah Clark Buswell III. Burney beat Buswell by about 26 percent of the vote.

In Houston, 25 votes separated three candidates for Council Seat C. Challenger Chris T. Johnson led with 75 votes, trailed by Dawnita Brunswick with 67 and incumbent Alma Hartley with 60. About 40 ballots remained to be counted.

Contact Reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, and on Twitter @reporterbriano.