For the first time in decades, a write-in candidate in a local Juneau election appears to have won

Will Muldoon is a write-in candidate for Juneau's school board.
Will Muldoon joined the race for Juneau’s school board as a write-in candidate and appears to have won. (Photo courtesy of Will Muldoon)

A write-in candidate appears to have won a local Juneau election for the first time in 29 years.

The latest unofficial election results that city officials published on Friday show Juneau Board of Education candidate Will Muldoon with a lead of 913 votes over the next closest candidate, Aaron Spratt.

More votes could be added to the final tally, but not enough to change the outcome of this race or any of the others that were on the ballot.

Meaning, incumbent school board President Elizabeth Siddon and newcomer Amber Frommherz still appear to have handily won their races for school board.

Likewise in Juneau Assembly races: Barbara Wáahlaal Gíidaak Blake and incumbent Michelle Bonnet Hale have insurmountable leads in their races. Incumbent Mayor Beth Weldon was uncontested.

So far, 78% of votes counted support extending some of Juneau’s sales taxes into 2027. The revenue is intended to pay for some core city services and city infrastructure.

The last time a write-in candidate won a local Juneau election was in 1992. Sally Rue successfully mounted an eight-day campaign for the Juneau Board of Education.

The 2,108 additional ballots added to the unofficial tally on Friday brings voter turnout to a 30.7%. That’s down 12 percentage points from last year’s 20-year high.

Another 300-plus ballots could potentially be added to the final tally. Those are ballots the city received, but that were missing a signature or some other validating piece of information. The people who sent these should have gotten a letter from election officials with ways to fix it. They have a deadline at 9 a.m. Tuesday to “cure” their ballots and have them counted.

The Canvass Review Board is scheduled to begin work certifying the election results on Tuesday. Final election results are expected within three days unless someone formally challenges the results.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated that Ibn Bailey was the candidate with the next closest votes to Will Muldoon. It was Aaron Spratt. Spratt overtook Bailey in the latest unofficial election results.

Jeremy Hsieh

Local News Reporter, KTOO

I dig into questions about the forces and institutions that shape Juneau, big and small, delightful and outrageous. What stirs you up about how Juneau is built and how the city works?

Sign up for The Signal

Top Alaska stories delivered to your inbox every week

Read next

Site notifications
Update notification options
Subscribe to notifications