Seward voters elected one incumbent and one newcomer to their city council during last week’s municipal election. Those results became official following council certification Monday night.
Five candidates threw their hat in the ring for the two open council seats. Just four votes separated the second- and third-place candidates. Incumbent candidate Robert Barnwell received 170 votes from the almost 400 people who cast ballots. That gave him a 50-vote lead over Matt Cope, the next highest vote-getter with 220 votes.
Barnwell is a longtime Seward resident and former teacher who now edits The Seward Folly. Cope owns two businesses in Seward and serves on the boards of the Seward Chamber of Commerce and the Seward Community Health Center.
Candidate Rhonda Hubbard trailed Cope by just four votes, followed by Victor Maddox and incumbent Julie Crites.
The standings are unchanged from Election Day. When polls closed, Seward’s canvass board had 74 more absentee, questioned and special needs ballots to count.
In all, roughly one in five of Seward’s eligible voters – 21.9% – cast a ballot in the city election. Multiple council members Monday said they are concerned about low voter turnout, including Barnwell.
“We need a higher turnout,” he said. “But I really appreciate – and just a shout out to – the people that take the time to vote. It’s important.”
Unlike some of the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s other incorporated communities, Seward has not moved its local election day to November. Kachemak City also has not made that change. Last year, voters peninsula-wide supported that change for borough elections. The goal was to boost voter turnout in local races by aligning borough and state election days.
In response, some cities made the same change, including Kenai, Soldotna, Homer and Seldovia.
Seward City Manager Kat Sorensen said there’s a reason Seward has not made the same change.
“We need at least a one year notice to make any changes, per our charter,” she said.
By the time borough voters opted to move the date in 2025, it was already too late. But Seward’s council is considering the move for next year’s election. At the same council meeting, members gave initial approval to an ordinance that would move local elections to November.
In a memo, Sorensen said the change could be more administratively cumbersome because voters would need to fill out three ballots on the same election day – city, borough and state-slash-federal. But she says the later start time for new council members would let them start after, rather than in the middle of, the city’s October budget work sessions.
The proposal to move city elections will be up for a public hearing and final vote at the council’s next meeting. That’s also when the city will swear in Barnwell and Cope for their council terms.
