With the Kenai Peninsula Borough continuing to receive mail-in ballots for the Special Mayoral Election; the final certified totals will not be released until Tuesday evening.
According to Michele Turner, Acting Borough Clerk, as of Friday morning, February 17th, the borough had received over 1800 ballots and counting.
The Borough’s clerks office will continue to receive ballots until the regularly scheduled Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, February 21st in the Betty J. Glick Assembly Chambers in Soldotna.
Turner explains the process of announcing the results at the borough assembly meeting;
“It will be a lay down at the assembly meeting with the report from the canvas board and we will also update the results page on the website.”
The Kenai Peninsula Borough will certify the results during the borough assembly meeting. If the current leader, Peter Micciche retains his lead of over 50% of the overall vote on Tuesday evening after the absentee votes are included in the totals; then, he will become the next Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor on Monday, February 27th.
If no candidate receives the required 50% +1 of the vote after the absentee ballots are included; a Special Mayoral Runoff Election will take place on Tuesday, March, 7th, 2023.
Unofficial results (as of February 14th-election day) show Peter Micciche with just over 50% of the calculated vote. Linda Farnsworth-Hutchings holds second in the vote count with 17% of the vote.
Based on the current elections results the runoff race would feature Peter Micciche and Linda Farnsworth-Hutchings.