Results for the Kenai Peninsula Borough municipal elections rolling in. With all six precincts reporting results in the race for the District 9 seat on the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly, incumbent Willy Dunne leads Troy Jones by 85 votes. It’s unclear how many absentee ballots are outstanding.
KBBI reached Dunne at Alice’s Champagne Palace where he was joined several supporters and other municipal candidates for an election night party.
“I think the voters have spoken loud and clear that they would like me to return and represent them at District 9 on the borough assembly,” Dunne said over the phone.
Dunne acknowledged that there could be enough absentee ballots to shift the race. Dunne said there were about 100 absentee ballots in 2015 when he was first elected to the assembly. He expects more this election cycle.
“We’ll have to wait and see this week how that turns out. I’m guessing that my lead will widen as the absentee ballots are counted,” Dunne added.
Jones is holding out hope that absentee voters will tell a different story as votes are counted over the next week.
“We’ll wait until the all the absentee ballots get counted and see where we’re at. It’s a fun race. It’s not over until it’s over,” Jones said over the phone Tuesday evening.
The borough is due to certify the results on Oct. 9. The canvass board will count absentee, questioned and mail-in ballots throughout the week. Any ballot sent through the mail that’s postmarked on or before Oct. 2 and received prior the certification of the results will be counted.
