Ledford leads runoff for Wasilla mayor

WASILLA — The early results of the runoff election for mayor of Wasilla have Deputy Mayor Glenda Ledford ahead of former Councilman Doug Holler by 20 votes.

Voters living within city limits in Wasilla got the chance for a second opportunity to vote for Wasilla’s next mayor when none of the three candidates running received more than 40 percent of the votes. The runoff ballot features the top two vote-getters, Holler and Ledford.

After 346 ballots were counted on Tuesday, Ledford had received 183 and Holler received 163. Wasilla voters cast 127 ballots at the Wasilla Middle School polling place and 219 ballots at Wasilla City Hall. The 346 votes cast on Tuesday account for 4.7 percent of the 7,287 registered voters in Wasilla. There were an additional 423 ballots received as of Tuesday that will be counted on Friday.

A special meeting to certify the election results has been scheduled for Friday at 7 p.m. Wasilla residents cast 237 early votes and sent in 131 absentee ballots. Wasilla City Clerk Jamie Newman reported at the Wasilla Council meeting on Monday that 232 absentee by mail ballots had been requested, leaving an additional 101 unaccounted for absentee by mail ballots that were requested but never returned. Absentee by mail ballots must have been returned to the ballot drop box by 8:00 p.m. Tuesday or postmarked on Tuesday and received by Friday. An additional 52 early poll questioned ballots were cast and three special needs ballots. With 423 total early, absentee, questioned and special needs ballots cast prior to Tuesday’s runoff Election Day and 346 ballots cast on election day, 10.6 percent of Wasilla voters turned out for the runoff election, higher than the 8.4 percent that turned out on Oct. 6.