The City of Soldotna Certified the February 3 Special Election, finalizing the tally at 335 no votes and 195 yes votes.
The election asked voters whether or not to form a charter commission comprised of seven members.
Commission candidate Pete Sprague said he was pleased with the turnout of voters.
Sprague: “When there’s a mayoral election there’s a greater voter turnout but what we had for this special election was pretty much in line with what we had for regular elections in October.”
In regards to the comments from Soldotna City Council along with Peninsula wide residents who said the city did not do enough to educate voters, Sprague said he felt the city did everything it was required to do, however…
Sprague: “In every election, the folks that are involved in it, the candidates or the people on one side of an issue or the other are the ones that generate the interest and really get out the voters, and the charter commissioners didn’t have a unified front and didn’t necessarily need one but I’ll just speak for myself, I think it was incumbent on me to do more, I don’t think I did enough.”
Had the commission been created, members would have compiled a charter proposal for voters to decide whether Soldotna should be a home rule city instead of first class.