Juneau residents were split on the question of whether a new city hall should be built, one that would cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. On Tuesday, the general sentiment in the all-mail-in election is “no.” Proposition 1 is facing 2,552 to 2,470, but there are still many more ballots to be counted, as mail trickles in.
Juneau voters have been asked this question before and turned it down just last year. This year, the Juneau Assembly spent $50,000 of taxpayers’ money to try to convince voters that a new city hall is needed; the old one has been allowed to deteriorate and many opponents of the question believe that the deferred maintenance is part of the strategy to convince people to build a new structure. The Assembly also restructured the plan to make it appear to cost less, but it seems voters were not persuaded.
Juneau had 10 candidates on the ballot for the two areawide Assembly seats. Paul Kelly leads the pack with 1,946 votes, and Ella Adkison appears to be winning the second seat with 1,698 votes so far. A total of 9,565 votes were counted in that race last night.
For Assembly District 1, it appears incumbent Alicia Hughes-Skandijs has been reelected with 2,872 votes. Joe Geldof got 2,033.
For Assembly District 2, incumbent Christine Woll won with 3,094 votes. David Morris had 1,703.
For the Board of Education, David Noon, 3,216 and Brittany Cioni-Haywood with 2,993 won seats.
The numbers reported on Election Night included ballot return envelopes that were received before Election Day that had been reviewed and approved for counting. Ballots returned on Election Day will be processed after Election Day and will be reported in updated results in subsequent days. The Canvass Review Board process for ballots is Oct. 16, and the election will be certified on Oct. 17.
