Few Races Contested in Kodiak Area Elections

Jay Barrett/KMXT
This is municipal election day around Kodiak Island. Voters will go to the polls to fill seats on the city council, borough assembly and school board, as well as various service areas, though there are some races without any choices and others without any candidates.
Just like last year, there are only two candidates for two seats on the board of education, which means Debra Kirk and long time incumbent Norm Wooten are almost guaranteed election.
Another race with no competition is for borough assembly, though it is less obvious. Assemblyman Jeroll Friend withdrew from his re-election bid, but did so five days too late to have his name removed from the ballot. That leaves incumbent Assemblywoman Chris Lynch and current school board member Aaron Griffin vying for the two seats.
However, since Friend’s name IS on the ballot, he will still be offered the seat if he is one of the top two vote getters. If Friend declines or accepts and immediately resigns, the assembly would have to then follow its usual procedure for filling a vacancy. Borough Clerk Nova Javier (ha-vee-air) said there is no provision in borough code for the third-place candidate to be seated.
If Griffin is one of the top two vote getters in the assembly election today, he would then have to resign his school board seat, which he won just one year ago, after having no opposition in that election either. The school board will then have to go through the process of filling the vacancy.
The Kodiak City Council election has the only clearly contested race, with three candidates for two seats. Incumbents Gabriel Saravia and Mark Vizcocho face a challenge by Rich Walker.

There are a number of service area seats up for grabs today as well, though some races have no takers.
Polls are open today until 8 p.m. KMXT will have whatever results are available about an hour or two after the polls close, and full coverage on tomorrow’s KMXT news.