With only around 3,500 absentee ballots yet to be counted, Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce has confidently declared victory in Tuesday’s yet-to-be-certified municipal election. He received 5,777 votes compared to his leading challenger, Linda Farnsworth-Hutchings’ 3,531 votes, at the ballot box on Tuesday. At around 59% of the votes going towards Mayor Pierce, it would take a major statistical shift in the absentee ballot count to shift away from a Pierce victory.
Shortly after all precincts reported their results, absentee ballots notwithstanding, Mayor Pierce took to social media to explain what to expect in his next term as Mayor: “I just held a six or seven months worth of campaigning out here on the peninsula running for Borough Mayor. I want to just reach out to all of my constituents and my supporters tonight and say thank you very, very much. I appreciate the support and confidence in me, again, to run and serve you for three years as Borough Mayor. Tonight, I will tell you that I’ve said it a number of times, and I believe this: we’re all essential. There are some challenges and I’m going to work through those challenges with you, with your help, with your support. We can do some great things here on the peninsula. We can continue to thrive and leave this place a better place than, perhaps, we found it.”
He added a personal address to the voters who took the time to bother getting out to vote: “I just want to reach out to you tonight to quickly mention how proud I am of this peninsula and the voters that went out tonight and expressed their views. You exercised your right tonight, and you picked your Mayor for the next three years. I’m honored to serve as that person and I appreciate your support.”
Throughout the Kenai Peninsula, out of 51,761 registered voters, only 11,900 ballots have been reported to have been cast. That marks a 22.99% rate of participation. Absentee ballots are expected to be counted, with results of the election officially certified, by October 13. KSRM will continue to keep the Kenai abreast of the latest absentee numbers, once counted and certified.