This is story has been updated to include new information.
Unofficial city election results shared Saturday show Alicia Hughes-Skandijs and Christine Woll winning seats on the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly in the two contested races for that body.
Juneauites voted against establishing a charter commission and approved a $15 million bond package, according to unofficial results.
The city received 11,142 Tuesday evening, CBJ said in a statement earlier this week. 8,098 ballots were counted as of Friday and another 1,950 were counted on Saturday.
The next round of unofficial results will be shared on Oct. 16, City Clerk Beth McEwen said in a Saturday evening news release. Additional review is being done on remaining ballots and election officials will continue receiving and counting ballots postmarked by Oct. 6. Part of the review process includes mailing letters to voters asking for responses to requested information, so people are asked to respond to the requests as soon as possible, so ballots may advance to the next stage of the counting process.
All results are preliminary and not final until they’ve been certified by the Alaska State Canvass Board on Oct. 20.
Three candidates ran uncontested. Deputy Mayor Maria Gladziszewski ran unopposed for an areawide seat on the CBJ Assembly, and current Juneau School District Board of Education President Brian Holst and Martin Stepetin Sr. ran uncontested for the School Board.
Unofficial results showed Alicia Hughes-Skandijs winning reelection to her Assembly District 1 seat, covering downtown Juneau and Lemon Creek, defeating challenger Kenny Soloman-Gross.
“It’s not over yet,” Hughes-Skandijs said by phone. According to preliminary results she was leading Solomon-Gross by more than 1,000 votes.
“I think I’m feeling cautiously optimistic. We’re pretty excited. There are still one-third of the ballots out there. I do want to make sure everybody gets their vote counted regardless of the outcome, that’s the most important part.”
Christine Woll led by almost 2,000 votes as of Saturday in the four-way race for District 2, covering the Mendenhall Valley, Auke Bay and the communities north of the ferry terminal beating out Lacey Derr, Robert Shoemake and Derek Dzinich.
“I’m feeling great, felt great before knowing the results because we ran a great campaign,” Woll told the Empire by phone Friday.
Even though results are preliminary, statements from other candidates started to come in Friday evening.
“Overall I’m quite pleased with how everything went,” Dzinich said in an email. “While I would have liked to win, I think Christine will do a good job. I’d also like to thank my extremely dedicated and professional team, Juneauites who voted for me, and all the great people in this community who supported my candidacy.”
Lacey Derr, also said she was pleased with her campaign.
“This has been an incredible experience and I don’t regret any minute of what I’ve experienced. I’m grateful to be part of a historic voter turn out and I look forward to continuing to serve my community in more fundamental ways,” she wrote in an email.
Though running uncontested, Holst said he was excited to serve.
“I am as excited to serve today as I was in my first term,” he wrote in an email. “The challenges that face our schools could not be larger and we are fortunate to have strong support for schools in Juneau. Thank you for taking the time to vote and for your continued support!”
Per unofficial results, Juneauites voted against Proposition 1 which is a once-a-decade vote to establish a Charter Commission to review and amend the City Charter, Juneau’s foundational document and yes on Proposition 2 was a $15 million bond issue meant for infrastructure and repair projects, mainly repairs to school roofs.
McEwen said while the city’s first by-mail election had some hiccups, she was overall pleased by the process and voter turnout, which crested 40% for the first time in two decades.
“I just really am impressed at how many Juneau voters participated in this particular election,” McEwen said.
• Contact reporter Peter Segall at psegall@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @SegallJnuEmpire.
By the numbers
Here are the numbers according to the preliminary results, as of Saturday.
• District 1, Hughes-Skandijs: 5,497; Solomon-Gross: 4,178; Write-ins: 62.
• District 2, Woll: 4,439; Shoemake: 2,441; Dzinich: 1,598; Derr: 898; Write-ins: 62
• Proposition 1: No: 6,347; Yes: 3,309
• Proposition 2: Yes 5,960; No: 3,871
•School Board: Holst: 5,759; Stepetin: 4,819; Write-ins: 333
• Areawide (uncontested): Gladziszewski: 6,158; Write-ins: 464
A voter fills out their ballot in person at the Mendenhall Valley Public Library on Oct. 6, 2020. The library was the site of one of the voting centers during the City and Borough of Juneau’s by-mail municipal election. Over 40% of registered voters cast ballots in the city’s by-mail election. (Ben Hohenstatt / Juneau Empire)
