Juneau elections

Incumbent candidates for mayor and school board widened their respective leads in Juneau’s local election on Friday, while Juneau voters’ rejection of the Ship Free Saturday ballot initiative became even more pronounced. 

Mayor Beth Weldon now leads opponent Angela Rodell by more than 1,800 votes, according to the latest ballot update from the City and Borough of Juneau.  

Neil Steininger widened his lead for the District 1 Juneau Assembly seat, as did Maureen Hall in District 2. 

For Juneau School Board, incumbents Elizabeth Siddon, Will Muldoon and Amber Frommherz all have substantial leads over the other three contenders. 

The Ship Free Saturday ballot initiative, which would have banned large cruise ships from visiting Juneau on Saturdays and the Fourth of July starting next year, appears to be soundly rejected. 

The two bond initiatives related to public safety and infrastructure are also poised to pass. 

Voters overwhelmingly rejected the recall petitions for School Board President Deedie Sorensen and Vice President Emil Mackey.

Friday’s count included 9,633 ballots, bringing voter turnout to 34%. That’s more than last year’s turnout, and there are still more than 1,000 ballots received on Election Day or by mail since Tuesday to be reviewed and processed. 

The city will post another updated count next Friday before the Canvass Review Board meets Oct. 14 and 15 to certify the final results. 

New and re-elected Assembly members will be sworn in at the Oct. 21 Assembly meeting. School Board members will be sworn in to their new terms at the Oct. 22 board meeting.

This story has been updated with the status of the school board recall petitions. 

Find the latest election news at ktoo.org/elections.  

The outcome of whether or not Juneau should ban all large cruise ships on Saturdays starting next year is still up in the air after election officials shared preliminary results Tuesday night. 

But so far, more residents are voting against it than for it.

According to the results shared by the city, 3,873 people voted no on Proposition 2 while 2,586 people voted yes — a 1,287-vote difference. But the tally on Tuesday only includes ballots that were mailed in or dropped off before Election Day. That means there could be thousands of votes left to be counted. 

Advocates for the Ship Free Saturdays proposition say Juneau residents want a break from the rapid growth of tourism in recent years, while opponents say it would hurt local businesses that rely on it. If passed, Juneau’s municipal attorney says a cascade of legal and logistical barriers could ensue. 

Most voters seem to be in favor of two other propositions on the ballot this year. One is a public safety bond that asks to borrow $12.7 million to replace the radio system used by first responders, and the other is a wastewater bond that asks to borrow $10 million to replace critical infrastructure at the Juneau Douglas Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The public safety bond holds a 1,304-vote margin in favor of it passing and the wastewater bond holds a 2,198-vote margin.

Incumbent Beth Weldon is leading in the race for mayor this election. Right now, she outpaces competitor Angela Rodell by 1,283 votes. If re-elected, it would be Weldon’s third three-year term as mayor. 

Assembly District 1 candidate Neil Steininger steadily leads over competitor Connor Ulmer for the seat with a 1,621-vote margin. The candidate who wins the race will replace outgoing Assembly member ‘Waahlaal Gidaag Barbara Blake.

For District 2, candidate Maureen Hall leads in the race over the four other candidates in the running. She has 2,172 votes and is followed by Nano Brooks with 1,770 votes and Emily Mesch with 781 votes. The winner will replace Michelle Hale.

The three incumbent candidates for three Juneau School Board seats hold steady leads over the three other candidates in the running. Elizabeth Siddon leads with the most votes, followed by Will Muldoon and Amber Frommherz.

Two petitions attempting to recall School Board President Deedie Sorensen and Vice President Emil Mackey don’t appear to be favored by voters. The results show that 4,091 residents voted against recalling Sorensen verses 2,062 in favor, and 3,982 against recalling Mackey verses 2,175 in favor. 

Voter turnout as of Tuesday’s results was 23%.

The results shared Tuesday night are subject to change —  more updated preliminary results will be shared by the city in the next week. Results won’t be certified by election officials until Oct. 15. 

Find the latest election news at ktoo.org/elections.

Drivers honked their horns as a crowd of people wearing raincoats and holding coffee waved campaign signs at the corner of a downtown intersection early Tuesday morning. 

Assembly candidate Neil Steininger said he wanted to get out during the morning rush hour traffic to make sure people remembered to vote. 

“I’m feeling good,” he said. “I feel like we’re reminding folks that today’s the last day and I’m feeling like there’s gonna be a good turnout.”

Steininger is running for the open District 1 seat against another candidate, Connor Ulmer. There are also five candidates running for an open District 2 seat this election. 

Alongside Steininger on the corner of the intersection was incumbent Mayor Beth Weldon. She’s running for her third term against challenger Angela Rodell.

“Well, I’m pretty hopeful that we have a pretty good voter turnout,” Weldon said. “We had a lot of early votes in, so I’m hoping today we’ll have a lot more votes in and I’m hopeful that I’m the winner.”

Weldon said she thinks voter turnout is going to be higher this year because of the Ship Free Saturdays proposition on the ballot. It asks voters whether to ban large cruise ships from visiting on Saturdays and on the Fourth of July starting next summer. 

There are also two other less contentious propositions on the ballot. One is a public safety bond that asks voters whether the city to borrow $12.7 million to replace the radio system used by first responders, and the other is a wastewater bond that asks to borrow $10 million to replace critical infrastructure at the Juneau Douglas Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Randy Bates is a commercial and recreational fisherman in Juneau. He cast his vote at the Mendenhall Valley Public Library early Tuesday morning. He said the Ship Free Saturday proposition was top of mind for him. 

“I’m not going to tell you how I voted, but as a recreational fisherman, I’ve got a partner who wants to go out on the weekends, on Saturdays, and these charter boats and these whale watchers are just overwhelming the waters out there,” he said.

On the other side of town, Heather Ramseth was dropping off her ballot in a drop box outside City Hall. She said she was happy to see such a robust ballot this year with new and returning candidates on it. 

“I’m pleased that people are running,” she said. “I think it’s a really scary time to put yourself out there.”

Ramseth said her ballot included a mix of new and incumbent candidates, and she said she would not be voting in favor of the Ship Free Saturday proposition. 

“It’s too hard a line just to say no ships on Saturdays,” she said. “I think trying to be more nuanced about our approach is important, and continuing to have conversations, even though it’s hard.”

The ballot also has two recall questions asking whether to oust Board of Education President Deedie Sorensen and another asking whether to recall board Vice President Emil Mackey. 

Sally and Frank Rue were also at City Hall to drop their ballots in the drop box. Sally is a former member of the school board. 

“I voted against the recalls because I do not think that’s a constructive way to go forward,” she said. “I understand how difficult the situation was, and I’m really happy I wasn’t on the school board then.”

The preliminary results of the election released Tuesday night only include ballots that were mailed in or dropped off before Election Day. Official results won’t be certified by election officials until Oct. 15.

Tuesday is Election Day here in Juneau. 

That means it’s the last day to cast your ballot in the by-mail municipal election. But don’t worry — there are a few ways to do that. 

The ballot includes three propositions, two recall questions, nine Assembly candidates — including mayor — and six school board candidates. 

The city has vote centers at City Hall and the Mendenhall Valley Public Library. Doors open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

Ballot drop boxes across town are open until 8 p.m. as well. They’re located at City Hall, the AEL&P office in Lemon Creek, Douglas Public Library, the Valley Library and Statter Harbor boat launch. 

Voters can also mail their ballots back, but ballots sent in by mail need to be postmarked on or before Election Day and a first-class stamp is required. Don’t forget: just because you drop off your ballot by 8 p.m. on Tuesday doesn’t mean it will be postmarked for that day. 

Preliminary results will be shared Tuesday night. The final election results will be certified on Oct. 15.

Find the latest election news and candidate profiles at ktoo.org/elections. 

All six candidates running for the Juneau School District Board of Education say finding fiscal stability after last year’s whirlwind budget crisis and school consolidation process is a top concern for them. 

But, as they campaign in this year’s municipal election, some differ in what they think is the best way to approach it. 

There are three open seats on the board in this municipal election. All incumbents are running again, but they face off against three challengers. The incumbents are Will Muldoon, Elizabeth Siddon and Amber Frommherz. Their challengers are Michele Stuart Morgan, Jeff Redmond and Jenny Thomas.

Rebuilding after consolidation 

Last year, the district faced an abrupt multimillion-dollar deficit, which had to be solved in a matter of months. That led to the consolidation of Juneau’s middle and high schools. 

Incumbent candidate Siddon said the aftermath of that continues to be the biggest challenge the district faces right now.

“There are certainly going to be sort of pressure points we find as the dust settles around that, and we’ll continue to find solutions to those,” she said in an interview. “But at the bigger level, I think it’s rebuilding the trust and the communication with the community.”

Challenger Stuart Morgan said it’s important that board members have an adequate understanding of how the district does its finances moving forward. 

“I think one would be understanding how the calculations are done,” she said. “The first thing I would like to do is get trained on that as if I was a person working there, understanding how that works, understanding how we receive our funding.”

Thomas agreed and said there should also be more transparency and communication in how the board makes big decisions like the consolidation process. Along with being a candidate for the school board, Thomas is also one of the leaders of a recall effort on the ballot this year to oust the board’s current president and vice president. 

“The school board members need to be direct and communicate with the public about what’s going on,” she said. “They need to let the public know that they’re hearing them rather than it falling on deaf ears, and you just think they’re doing whatever they want.”

Tackling declining enrollment, state funding uncertainties 

With continued uncertainty about education funding in the state, paired with the district’s declining enrollment, incumbent Frommherz said she thinks more difficult conversations are likely ahead.

“I foresee that the school district will have to consolidate some more if it’s continued flat funding; all the expenses are increasing every year,” she said in an interview. “I believe it’ll be at the other end of the spectrum, which would be at the elementary level. And we’re looking for areas where there are multiple geographic consolidations, so it’d most likely be in the Valley area is what I would predict.”

But incumbent Muldoon thinks there still is time to figure out if the district will need to turn to more school consolidation. 

“I would say in the immediate term, hopefully not,” he said in an interview. “We are doing our best, but as far as the best way to tackle that, I think it’s fully bringing our budget software online and having a relational database model for all finances and dollars in and dollars out, and then modeling that data for timely and accurate reports and a public-facing dashboard.”

And Redmond said he thinks the district will have to play a balancing act when it comes to how closing schools might affect future funding.

“It’s kind of a self-fulfilling issue. So if it does need to continue, then again, just looking ahead more than 30 days would be like a kind of a basic first step. However, seeking alternate funding is a big one for me,” he said. “I understand that there are some constraints on that, but it doesn’t mean that there’s no way to explore that.”

Find more election coverage at ktoo.org/elections.  

Juneau’s municipal Election Day is right around the corner — voters have until Tuesday night to cast their ballots in this year’s local election. 

There are a few ways to do that. The city has ballot drop boxes in different locations all across town. Voters can also mail their ballots back, or go to a vote center.

The year’s ballot features three propositions, two recall questions, nine Assembly candidates — including mayor — and six school board candidates. According to City Clerk Beth McEwen, they’re already seeing a lot of ballots come through the city’s processing center. 

“It’s definitely up from last year’s returns … we’re definitely busier than we were last year,” she said. 

As of Thursday afternoon, more than 4,200 ballots had been returned. That’s about 27% higher than this time last year. McEwen said they’re also seeing fewer cure letters that need to be sent to voters to correct mistakes on returned ballots. If voters do receive a cure letter, she encourages them to respond as soon as possible to make sure their vote can be counted. 

The ballot drop boxes are open now until 8 p.m. Tuesday. They are located at City Hall, the AEL&P office in Lemon Creek, Douglas Library, the Mendenhall Valley Public Library and Statter Harbor boat launch. 

Ballots sent in by mail need to be postmarked on or before Election Day and a first-class stamp is required. Remember: just because you drop off your ballot by 8 p.m. on Tuesday doesn’t mean it will be postmarked for that day. 

The city’s vote centers at City Hall and the Valley Library will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

McEwen said it can get a bit busy at the vote centers on Election Day, and she encouraged people to cast their ballots before then if they can.

“It’s the same process, whether you show up between now and Election Day or Election Day itself, it’s just on Election Day you may have to wait in line,” she said. 

Ballots turned in on Election Day aren’t counted in the unofficial results released that night. They’ll be added to later unofficial result updates. The final results will be certified on Oct. 15.