elections

On the central Kenai Peninsula, incumbents triumphed after almost 4,000 ballots were counted at the cooperative’s annual membership meeting Thursday.

Voters approved moving the city’s election day to November, like the Kenai Peninsula Borough and the City of Soldotna have done. The change aligns local elections with state and federal elections.

One candidate has suspended his campaign, another is battling the borough in federal court over public access and the third is a retired school principal looking to dip his toe into local politics.

The petitioners say board members should have done more to push back on a health clinic that was proposed for the high school in Nikiski.

Now that borough code matches state law, the assembly will still need to pass an ordinance if it wants to spend public money promoting a ballot proposition. But, they won’t need to go around their own rules first.

Clerks from Kenai and Soldotna preview this year's local election.

An ordinance would ask the public if they want to move municipal elections to the same date in November as state elections. The assembly postponed taking action on the ordinance until its Aug. 1 meeting

Peter Micciche is leading in the special election for Kenai Peninsula Borough mayor, with just over 50% of the vote. But with more votes still to be tallied, it’s too soon to say whether it will be enough for the borough to avoid a runoff election next month.

Kelly Tshibaka brought her pitch to repeal ranked choice voting to a Kenai fundraiser Tuesday — the latest effort from opponents of ranked choice voting to repeal the new system, which voters narrowly approved by ballot initiative in 2020.

Before each election, every Kenai Peninsula Borough mailbox gets a hefty brochure with voting information. The assembly is considering a proposal to stop sending the packets to voters, citing high costs and lack of public interest.