Election Canvas Shows Voter Turnout Extremely Low

Jay Barrett/KMXT
Write-in, absentee and question ballots have been counted for last week’s municipal elections. Some of the totals may have changed but the results have not.
In the City of Kodiak, 46 additional votes were added to the total, bringing the number of ballots cast to 483, which is just over 13-percent of the city’s registered voters. Councilman Gabriel Saravia wound up with 276 votes to win re-election, while Rich Walker got 250 votes to win the other open seat. Mark-Anthony Vizcocho got 226 votes. Candidates in the city run at large, with the top two vote-getters taking office.
The city’s Proposition 1, which moves up the date council members take office, gained a net of 24 more votes to pass 315 to 65.
The Kodiak City Council is expected to certify the results at tonight’s meeting.
Voter turnout in the borough-wide assembly, school board and service area elections was also just 13 percent – 10 percentage points lower than last year. The reason could very well be the lack of choice in both the assembly and school board races, with just two candidates for two open seats on both. Though Assemblyman Jerrol Friend was on the ballot, he had withdrawn several weeks before the election.
Turn out in the borough ranged from 35 percent of registered voters in Ouzinkie to just 6 percent in Bells Flats, where just 119 out of 1,897 registered voters cast ballots. The assembly is expected to certify the election results at next Thursday’s regular meeting.