It’s municipal Election Day in Juneau on Tuesday. This year, voters will decide on three Assembly seats, two school board seats and three ballot propositions.
Cars zoomed past candidates and supporters as they waved signs and sipped coffee in the rain at the Juneau-Douglas Bridge intersection Tuesday morning.
Juneau Assembly candidate Joyce Niven said she wants to make sure people remember today is municipal Election Day.
“It’s pretty exciting to actually finally get to the end, and this is the day, and I’m just hoping everybody gets out and votes,” she said.
Niven is running for the open District 2 seat on the Assembly against three other candidates – Karla Hart, Malachi Thorington and David Morris.
Candidates Paul Kelly, Brad Sapp and James McCants are competing for an open area-wide seat, and Mila Cosgrove is running unopposed for the District 1 seat.
Nearby, school board candidate Christine Johnson is waving signs with her husband. Johnson is one of three candidates running for two open seats on the school board. The other candidates are incumbents Britteny Cioni-Haywood and David Noon. Johnson said who’s sitting on the school board affects the whole community.
“It impacts everybody in Juneau, whether you have kids or not,” she said. “If you’re an employer, you’re hiring students that are graduating from the school district.”
Across the bridge on Douglas Island, Dr. Seth Workentine stopped by the ballot drop box outside the library on his way to work. Workentine is a family medicine doctor at Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. He said he voted in favor of the seasonal sales tax that would support recreation facilities.
“It seems smart to try and increase income from tourism,” he said. “I think that’s the idea: have a tax rate when there’s more tourists in town, and then when times are a little harder, when the tourism industry is down during the winter, decrease the taxes. It seems smart.”
Later in the morning, on the north side of town, Larry O’Keefe walked out of the Mendenhall Valley Public Library after voting. The 79-year-old said he’s voted in every election since 1968. He said he’s also in favor of supporting recreation.
“I don’t ski. I don’t go to the pool. I don’t do much of anything as far as any of that stuff goes,” he said. “But I definitely think that the town needs it, so I will support it.”
But not everyone agrees. Pam Tripp, who also cast her ballot at the Valley library, said she’s voting no across the board.
“I just don’t really trust the Assembly with more money,” she said. “How they spend it — it’s a mystery to me where the priorities are at times.”
The preliminary results of the election are released on Tuesday night once ballot boxes and vote centers close. The initial results will only include ballots that voters mailed in or dropped off before Election Day. The city clerk’s office will certify results on Oct. 20.
Reporter Jamie Diep contributed to this story. KTOO will publish preliminary election results as soon as they’re available.
