Tuesday was municipal election day in Ketchikan. Seven polling locations across the island opened early Tuesday morning.
At around 1pm on Tuesday, election officials at the South Tongass Alliance Church said things have been slow. They’d counted just over 100 votes since 7am when the polls opened. They logged about 4 times that many votes during the primary.
“And it was really busy then. So, we’re not going to hit that,” an election administrator said.
“Probably the weather,” a passing voter offered.
The day isn’t over though. Officials said they were expecting a big pulse of voters to hit the polls around dinnertime.
Over at the North Tongass Fire Station on the other end of the island though, election official Wendy Olson said they were seeing their biggest rush so far.
“Welcome to the rush,” she laughed. “Hopefully more people come, we need more people to vote.”
Still though, Olson said their polling station, one of two locations for the northern part of the borough, had counted about 75 votes by 1:30pm.
Across the board, each precinct reported the same story: that the polls had been slow but steady. Over in Saxman, things were even slower. Election officials at the Saxman Community Hall had received 25 ballots by the same time.
The only exception was Ketchikan Precinct 3, the polls at the Alaska Marine Highway ferry terminal north of the city. Election official Laura Antonsen reported that they had received about 350 voters by 3pm, more than expected.
“They have come in spurts. We didn’t think we were going to be this busy but we are and we’re very happy about that,” she said. “And I hope more people come down and vote before 8pm because we certainly will be here.”
As anticipated, the three precincts within Ketchikan city limits tallied the most votes as the afternoon wore on, with voting booths at the Rec Center receiving the most traffic.
Almost invariably, no one at the polls wanted to talk about who or what they were voting for. That may have something to do with the ballots. Both the City and Borough ballots were pretty lean this year, with no ballot measures or petitions or bond issues. Voters were asked to elect a candidate for mayor and two candidates for city council on the city ballot and then choose three candidates for full school board terms, an uncontested race for a one-year term, and a couple potential borough assembly members for the borough ballot.
The polls closed at 8pm and the first precinct was expected to deliver their results to the White Cliff Building soon after. State and national elections will take place on November 5.
