ELECTION UPDATE: Tew holds 20-vote lead over incumbent Mayfield

PALMER — Clayton ‘Mokie’ Tew still leads incumbent James "Dan" Mayfield in the race for Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly District 5, the Big Lake and Knik-Goose Bay Road area, as election officials worked through absentee ballots Thursday.

Meanwhile in the District 4 race, Ted Leonard leads Patricia Hogan in Assembly District 4, for Wasilla, the seat of outgoing Assembly Member Steve Colligan. The results remain unofficial. The election will be certified on Oct. 17, at 5 p.m. in the Borough Assembly chambers at 350 E. Dahlia Ave., in Palmer.

Thursday afternoon, Borough Clerk Lonnie McKechnie said the canvassing board would be more than halfway done with its canvassing of the absentee ballots and should be finished sometime Friday. From there, they will begin reviewing question ballots, she said.

Tew has 608 votes to Mayfield's 588 votes at the polls in the Big Lake area district. Some 219 absentee, and questioned votes, and a special need vote remain to be counted in that race.

Ted Leonard has 481 votes to Patricia Hogan's 281 votes at the polls tonight in the Wasilla Assembly seat race. Some 156 questioned and absentee votes and 1 special needs ballot remain to be canvassed and counted.

Incumbent School Board Member Kelsey Trimmer has 322 votes to challenger Emery Schramm's 218 votes for School Board District 6. School Board Member Ole Larson ran unopposed, garnering 356 vote at the polls.

The proposition for a 3 percent sales tax for the Talkeetna Sewer and Water Service Area has 42 yes votes 30 no votes. Some 26 absentee, questioned, and special need votes remain to be counted.

Some 3,049 people cast a vote at the polls. Some 9.19 percent of voters turned out for the election. No Borough-wide proposition was on the ballot and not all of the precincts had ballots up for a vote.

Mat-Su Borough Clerk Lonnie McKechnie says the Canvass Board will begin tomorrow. The Board will confirm the results from tonight and begin canvassing or verifying that each outstanding vote was cast by a registered voter who was qualified to vote on that ballot.

Palmer City Council

Four candidates were up for two seats on the Palmer City Council on Tuesday.

If unofficial results hold, incumbent Brad Hanson will return to office, getting 44 percent of the votes on a ballot which allowed voters to vote for two. The race for the second and final seat is considerably closer between two newcomers with Sabrena Combs holding 36.52 percent of the vote and Kenni Linden 35.11.

That translates to a difference of eight votes in an election that saw 818 votes cast, unofficially.

Wasilla Mayor/proposition

Bert Cottle survived a challenge from a pair of opponents to retain mayorship of the city of Wasilla.

Cottle got 408 votes, or 70 percent of total votes cast in a race that saw 12 percent of the eligible voting pool participate. Kevin Baker came in second with 17 percent and Loren Means third with 11 percent.

Meanwhile, the proposition to pass a 1-cent sales tax to pay for a new facility for the Wasilla Police Department, which has already won the contract to host the Mat-Su Borough Dispatch, passed by a margin of 353 to 254 (58 percent to 42).

Wasilla city races with candidates running unopposed included Seat A, where Stephen “Mike” Dryden took 96 percent against write-ins, while for Seat D Glenda Ledford took 96 percent, and Seat C council member and deputy mayor Stuart “Stu” Graham took in a similar tally.

The results of the election are expected to be certified at Monday’s city council meeting.

Houston elections

Houston also had elections Tuesday night, though none of the races were contested.

For Council Seat A, Virgie Thompson took 82 of 86 votes and for Seat B Ferdinand “F. Jay” Kruger took 79 of 82.