Wasilla's mayoral runoff is Tuesday

WASILLA — Residents that live inside Wasilla city limits still have time to vote for the next mayor.

The mayoral runoff election is Tuesday, Oct. 27 and early voting is already underway. Wasilla City Hall is open for early voting on Monday and both City Hall and Wasilla Middle School will host in-person voting on Tuesday from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.

The Wasilla Library is an early voting location for state and national elections, but will not be used to host voting in the Wasilla mayoral runoff election. After absentee ballots had been counted, none of the three candidates running for mayor had received 40 percent of the votes, triggering the runoff election between the top two candidates. Former Wasilla City Councilman Doug Holler received 238 votes and Deputy Mayor Glenda Ledford received 210 votes after 84 absentee ballots were counted for both candidates. Councilman Stu Graham also ran for mayor and received 166 votes.

“I just hope everybody gets out to vote and I don’t pick sides on who you vote for because they’re both good candidates but I hope everybody gets out to vote,” said Mayor Bert Cottle. “I think the numbers are going to actually be higher in the runoff than they were in the general election, maybe.”

Wasilla also had a mayoral runoff in 2008. As of Friday, 125 early votes had been cast at City Hall, according to Clerk Jamie Newman. Newman reported that out of 232 absentee ballots that had been requested for the runoff election, 98 have already been returned.

The Wasilla City Council will meet on Monday to swear in both Timothy Johnson and Simon Brown II for their council seats. Poll totals will be announced on Tuesday and the absentee ballots will be counted on Friday, Oct. 30. Either Holler or Ledford will be sworn in as Wasilla’s new mayor on Nov. 2.

Masks will be required of voters at polling locations, as required by Cottle’s Update 13 that took effect on July 31.

“In order to try and curb or limit the opportunity for community transmission with overabundance of caution for our staff and patrons I hereby find it is in the best interest of the community to require face coverings for staff and patrons at all city of Wasilla facilities,” wrote Cottle.