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Election Day underway in Juneau, early results set to be released tonight
Cost-of-living concerns, providing services to retain residents remain key issues for first voters showing up at polls
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
Larry Schutt says he was the first to arrive at City Hall to vote on Tuesday because he got up an hour early after misreading his clock. But as a 61-year resident of Juneau he’s also tried to vote in every election since he’s been eligible.
Like plenty of residents in Juneau and elsewhere these days, he said a primary concern this election season is the cost of living.
"I think that we need to control our spending and try and make the community a little bit more affordable for our younger folks," he said just before in-person voting began at City Hall at 7 a.m.
While inflation and some other economic circumstances are bigger issues than a municipal assembly can solve on its own, Schutt said there are things he believes the city can manage better.
"One thing I can't understand is that we're losing people every year, but we still have a housing shortage," he said.
Voters are selecting three Assembly members among eight candidates, two Juneau Board of Education members among three candidates, and deciding ballot measures to continue a temporary 3% sales tax for another five years, raise the mill rate cap to 12 instead of 9, and impose a seasonal sales tax of 1% from April to September.
Arriving about 20 minutes after in-person voting began was Jeana Varney, a project manager for a local information technology company, to drop off completed ballots for herself and her partner. She said she moved to Juneau six years ago from Springfield, Missouri, and the ballot initiatives are what she considers most important in this year’s election.
"I think this is a pretty big election because after our last election we all went through a lot of turmoil with the cuts and potential cuts and everything," she said. "So for me as an individual it's really important to take care of the community we live in, and so the way I'm voting is hopefully going to help the city be able to do that. I believe in services, both essential and recreational, so I just want to be a good community member and provide for everybody. I'm not going to have kids, so this is my way of helping people with kids in this community and retaining people here."
In-person balloting is scheduled to continue at City Hall and the Mendenhall Valley Public Library until 8 p.m. Eligible voters can also drop their ballots at drop boxes at those two locations, as well as the Alaska Electric Light and Power office, Douglas Public Library, and Statter Harbor boat launch.
By-mail voting began Sept. 18 and residents can still mail ballots if they are postmarked by Tuesday.
An initial tally of unofficial results is scheduled to be released this evening that includes "all ballots received, reviewed, and accepted before Election Day, according to the city’s elections page. Additional unofficial results including "eligible ballots received on or after Election Day" are expected to be published Friday. The tallies will be updated further as warranted until results are certified Oct. 20.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
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