Anchorage

With about 2,200 more ballots counted, Anchorage voters still rejecting alcohol tax

With 2,226 additional ballots counted Wednesday, Anchorage voters continue to reject a local alcohol tax and there were no significant changes in other races.

Thousands of ballots remain to be counted in Anchorage’s second vote-by-mail election, but none of the races were particularly close by Wednesday night.

Election officials said they plan to post updated results again on Friday and possibly Thursday too. The results won’t be official until April 16.

Here are the outcomes as of Wednesday evening, with 45,186 ballots tallied:

(Note: Election officials said they’d received nearly 20,000 additional ballot envelopes that had yet to be counted by Wednesday. On top of that, ballots mailed and postmarked by Tuesday, election day, will continue to trickle in.)

Five Anchorage Assembly races:

• In the Chugiak-Eagle River Assembly race, Crystal Kennedy held a strong lead over her opponent, Oliver Schiess. Kennedy had 3,686 votes, or 58 percent, to Schiess’ 2,700 votes, or 42 percent.

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• In the West Anchorage Assembly race, Kameron Perez-Verdia had an 850-vote lead over his opponent, Liz Vazquez. Perez-Verdia had 50 percent of the vote to Vazquez’s 40 percent. In third place was Dustin Darden, at 10 percent.

• In the Midtown Assembly race, Meg Zaletel had the lead over her opponent, Christine Hill. Zaletel had 3,793 votes, or 53 percent, compared to Hill’s 2,454 votes at 34 percent. A third candidate, Ron Alleva, had 13 percent.

• South Anchorage Assemblyman John Weddleton and East Anchorage Assemblyman Forrest Dunbar ran unopposed.

Two Anchorage School Board races:

(Unlike Assembly members, Anchorage School Board members are elected in area-wide races.)

Margo Bellamy had the lead over opponent Kai Binkley Sims in the race for School Board Seat A. Bellamy had 21,765 votes, or 55 percent, to Binkley Sims’ 17,862 votes, or 45 percent.

• In the race for School Board Seat B, Starr Marsett, the current school board president, was out in front of David Nees. Marsett had 20,452 votes, or 52 percent of the vote, Nees had 39 percent, and a third candidate, Ronald Stafford, had 9 percent.

Propositions:

• Anchorage voters were rejecting a local alcohol tax with 23,428 votes opposed to the tax, or 53 percent, and 21,082 votes in favor of it, or 47 percent.

• Voters leaned strongly in favor of a ballot proposition that would expand enforcement of junk and abandoned vehicles, with 78 percent voting yes.

• A proposition to make it easier for the city to negotiate lease-to-own agreements for rented real estate like City Hall was also passing with 62 percent of votes in favor of it.

• Nearly all bond propositions were passing, including a $59.1 million school bond package that 59 percent of voters had said “yes” to. The exception was a bond for area-wide facility improvements, with 53 percent of voters voting “no.”

Head to muni.org for the full list of election results.

Here are the Daily News’ election stories from Tuesday night:

Anchorage voters reject alcohol tax in initial election returns

Bellamy, Marsett lead in Anchorage School Board races that attracted big advertising spending

Anchorage on track to return Berkowitz-aligned majority to Assembly

Tegan Hanlon

Tegan Hanlon was a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News between 2013 and 2019. She now reports for Alaska Public Media.

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