Preliminary election results

With polls closing at 8 p.m. Tuesday night, preliminary results for Wrangell’s city election have come in. The election saw seats open for the positions of mayor, the borough assembly, school board, port commission, and hospital board. Also on the ballot was Proposition 1, which would allow for the lease of the Wrangell Medical Center and construction of a new hospital. There were 649 ballots cast on election day, with an additional 117 absentee ballots. The preliminary results of the election are as follows:

There were two candidates for mayor, Stephen Prysunka and Carl Carlisle. Prysunka received 465 votes and Carlisle received 124.

David Powell was the sole candidate listed on the ballot for a position on the borough assembly. He received 457 votes. There were, however, two write-in candidates for the assembly as well. Mya DeLong received 174 votes. Dale Parkinson, the other write-in candidate, received 133 votes.

There were two seats on the school board this election, both of which were hotly contested. There were five candidates for the three-year term on the seat. Aaron Angerman took the lead in the preliminary election with 428 votes. Incumbent Aleisha Mollen was close behind at 322 votes. The other candidates include Brian Ashton at 173 votes, Jennifer Bates at 119 votes, and Karey Losinski at 60 votes. There were three candidates for the second seat, an unexpired term until October of 2019. Annya Ritchie received 235 votes, Leean Martin received 192 votes, and David Powell received 172 votes.

There were two open positions on the hospital board which was also on the ballot, with only one candidate listed. Olinda Chaffee-White, an incumbent, received 517 votes, and another 30 votes were cast for write-in candidates. For the second seat, an unexpired term until October of 2019, there were no candidates on the ballot, but 49 write-in votes were cast.

There was also a seat on the port commission available. Brian Merritt received 550 votes and John Martin received 482. There were also three write-in votes.

Proposition 1 also received majority support, according to preliminary results. City laws require that the sale or lease of any borough property over $1 million must be ratified by a majority vote. A vote in favor of this proposition would allow for the lease of the Wrangell Medical Center to SEARHC, as well as for construction of a new hospital next to the AICS clinic. The value of the transaction was put at approximately $1.62 million. Preliminary results show 583 votes in favor of the proposition and 32 against.

Absentee ballots will be counted, and the election results will be finalized, in a special borough assembly meeting on Oct. 4.