Sitka voters made their preferences known for mayor, assembly, and school board Tuesday. And although over 800 early and absentee ballots have yet to be counted some races’ winners can be cautiously called.
Incumbent Steven Eisenbeisz will likely serve a second term as Sitka’s mayor. Results from precincts 1 and 2 show Eisenbeisz with 51 percent of the votes, for a total of 798. Former assembly member and mayor Valorie Nelson trailed Eisenbeisz by over 300 votes. Nelson earned 478 votes, around 31 percent. And Kevin Mosher came in third with 263 votes, around 17%.
Fisherman and political newcomer Chris Ystad is the front runner in the race for two assembly seats, with 933 votes. Thor Christianson is likely to keep his assembly seat– he’s in second place right now behind Ystad with 747 votes. But he’s trailed somewhat closely by former assembly member Richard Wein, who received 626 votes.
Kris Chinalski was the fourth highest vote getter with 505 votes, and Ryan Herbert came in fifth with 101 votes.
For school board, both candidates on the ballot had strong showings- Mitch Mork received 1145 votes to Tristan Guevin’s 1086 votes. And there were 500 write-ins, which have to be read individually by election workers before they can be officially attributed to any one candidate. But there was only one official write-in candidate, Melonie Boord, who filed to run on September 23.
These tallies don’t account for absentee and early voters, which make up a sizable chunk of Sitka’s voting pool. Around 860 Sitkans voted early this year, most of them in-person. Those votes will be counted on Friday, October 7 at noon.
All of these results are unofficial until the assembly certifies them at their next regular meeting.
