Juneau’s election results are official. Here’s what the Assembly’s newest member wants to tackle first.

Voters fill out their ballots just an hour before voting was to end in Juneau's municipal elections on Oct. 6, 2020, at Juneau Public Libraries' Valley Branch. Most voters cast their votes by mail, but some went to vote in person. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO and Alaska Public Media)
Voters fill out their ballots just an hour before voting was to end in Juneau’s municipal elections on Oct. 6, 2020, at Juneau Public Libraries’ Valley Branch. Most voters cast their votes by mail, but some went to vote in person. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO and Alaska Public Media)

Final results are in for Juneau’s local election.

The Canvass Review Board met Tuesday to certify the Oct. 6 election results.

Christine Woll will be the newest member of the Juneau Assembly once she’s officially sworn in next Monday. She’ll serve a three-year term after winning the four-way District 2 race.

Current Assembly members Maria Gladziszewski and Alicia Hughes-Skandijs were re-elected to serve three-year terms.

Christine Woll (Photo courtesy Christine Woll)
Christine Woll (Photo courtesy Christine Woll)

Woll, who will replace outgoing Assembly member Rob Edwardson, has lived in Juneau for almost nine years and works as a program director for The Nature Conservancy, an organization that works to protect and manage land and water resources.

She said she expects to immediately begin helping the Assembly respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by deciding where the city’s remaining CARES Act money should go.  And to figure out how to protect the community while the world waits for a vaccine.

“The pandemic continues to be the number one topic that we need to be focused on. And so that has a variety of facets right now,” Woll said. “Obviously, we’re still seeing a great deal of community transmission. And so we need to stay on our toes.”

The charter commission ballot proposition did not pass. That means the city won’t establish a commission to review the city charter.

Proposition 2 passed. That will allow the city to issue $15 million in bonds for infrastructure and capital improvements.

For the Juneau Board of Education, President Brian Holst was re-elected, and newcomer Martin Stepetin won a seat in an uncontested race.

Both will be sworn in Wednesday at a 6 p.m. school board meeting.

This was Juneau’s first election conducted by-mail, and it resulted in the city’s best turnout in more than 20 years.

Nearly 12,000 of the 27,000 ballots mailed out to registered voters were returned by mail, drop box or in-person, making final turnout more than 42%.

Correction: A previous version of this story omitted the word “not” from the sentence, “The charter commission ballot proposition did not pass.”

Sign up for The Signal

Top Alaska stories delivered to your inbox every week

Site notifications
Update notification options
Subscribe to notifications