Clay, Wald, Shove, Dryden seated on school board
Judy Jacobson votes on election day at the ANB Hall.
Tyler Huling and Debra Schnabel won the election for Haines Borough Assembly, according to unofficial results released Tuesday evening.
Huling, who turns 30 next week, led the four assembly candidates with 552 votes. Schnabel, 69, came in second with 535 votes. Brenda Josephson and Richard Clement placed in third and fourth with 410 and 349 votes, respectively.
“I was not sure how it would turn out. I think all four of us were really strong candidates. It definitely felt like an unknown. I was both surprised and thrilled to see how it unfolded,” Huling said.
In total, 982 people cast ballots on election day, marking a voter turnout of 41%. That number, which outstanding votes will bump up once they’re counted, is down from last year’s election day turnout of 50%, the largest in at least seven years. The final voter turnout last year was 53%.
But compared to past midterms the year after a mayoral election, voter turnout this year was up. Borough clerk Alekka Fullerton said she predicted turnout would be 39%, noting that for the last two midterms after mayoral elections the turnouts were 39% and 38%. “The first midterm election after the mayoral is always the lowest (turnout),” Fullerton said.
Eighty-nine ballots remain to be counted. Most of those are emailed ballots and a handful are mail-ins, some of which could be discarded if not postmarked before Oct. 5 or received by Oct. 12. The borough will release final vote tallies on Oct. 12.
Huling and Schnabel accrued their lead from absentee ballots. Among those, Huling and Schnabel received 275 and 271 votes, respectively, topping 127 for Josephson and 102 for Clement.
Josephson received the most votes Tuesday in the Mosquito Lake precinct with 52, followed by Clement with 41, Schnabel with 30 and Huling with 27. In town, Huling secured 250 votes, while Schnabel, Josephson and Clement received 234, 231 and 206, respectively.
“I feel good. I also feel challenged,” Schnabel wrote in an email to the CVN. “Though I garnered a majority of the votes cast, I realize there is a large minority of voters that still must be represented in developing public policy. I will do my best to appreciate that.”
“Today is yard work, a bicycle ride, then the KCIBR AGM (Kluane Chilkat International Bike Relay Annual General Meeting),” Clement wrote in an email to the CVN.
Josephson could not be reached before press time.
Incumbents Brian Clay and Michael Wald and newcomers Kevin Shove and Shannon Dryden secured seats on the school board.
Clay and Wald were re-elected to three-year terms, receiving 702 and 592 votes, respectively. Shove and Dryden were elected to two-year terms with 430 and 415 each. Write-in candidate Keely Baumgartner came in fifth with 309 votes, and Jonathan Wray placed sixth with 228.
The new assembly members are set to be sworn in on Oct. 26.