Incumbents retain seats on MEA Board of Directors

PALMER — Matanuska Electric Association members re-elected three incumbents to the board of directors ad approved all five ballot propositions.

Incumbents Peter Burchell, Kit Jones, and Janet Kincaid were the top vote getters among the eight candidates in the board election.

Burchell garnered the largest number of votes among the eight candidates vieing for three seats on the cooperative’s board of director.

Burchell received 3,641 votes, or roughly 18 percent, followed by incumbent Jones with 3,381 votes, or 17 percent, and Kincaid with 3,019, or 15 percent.

Challengers sought to portray a vote for the incumbents as a vote for future price increases. While incumbents claimed that price increases are largely driven by the renegotiation of long-term natural gas lines and beyond their ability to curtail.

Ballots listed all eight candidates and instructed voters to choose their top three. Officials counted 6,924 ballots according to the MEA website, and the vast majority (67 percent) were cast via mail.

The leading challenger was Kevin Buckland with 12 percent, or 2,305 votes. K. Wayne Price received 2,161 votes. Ron Johnson received 1,833 votes. Glenda Ledford netted 1,732 votes. Bryan Scoresby received 1,696.

Several ballot measures, including a measure that puts the burden and decision for finance reporting on the candidate themselves instead of MEA staff members, and another ballot measure allowing election materials to be sent out electronically, also passed. Each of the ballot measures passed by double-digit margins. The closest margin recorded for a ballot measure was 56 percent.

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