A single vote appears to have decided the race for Soldotna mayor. Incumbent Mayor Paul Whitney pulled ahead of challenger Chuck Winters after Soldotna’s election officials counted hundreds more absentee and question ballots.
Soldotna’s election results are still unofficial. City council members are scheduled to certify the election Thursday. Soldotna held a recount of the mayor’s race Wednesday morning, which affirmed Whitney's one-vote lead.
After polls closed on Election Day, Winters led Whitney by 36 votes. More than 900 people cast ballots on Election Day, and more than 360 people voted absentee or question ballots.
Soldotna City Clerk Johni Blankenship says that’s about three times as many absentee votes than the city saw last year. Speaking to KDLL at Soldotna’s polling location on Election Day, she suspects the high number reflects city snowbirds. This year marked the first that Soldotna’s city election was held on the same day as the statewide election – in November, rather than October.
“The snowbirds – they leave, and it's November, and so a lot of folks, I think, one for convenience to be able to vote at the time that works for them, but also because they're leaving the state for the winter,” she said.
Winters serves on the board of the Soldotna Chamber of Commerce, and ran on reducing the burden of city regulations on businesses. As a first-time candidate for Soldotna office, he says the race outcome is a valuable insight into the significance of absentee votes. While watching results come in on Election Night, he said he felt optimistic about the outcome.
He says the one-vote difference was a blow, but he’s confident in the work of Soldotna’s election officials.
“Why couldn't it be 100, you know?” he said. “I mean, it's one vote, the difference in it. It's almost again like, let's rub a little salt in the wound there. It was really tough. It's really tough.”
Whitney has a background in law enforcement and has served as Soldotna mayor since 2020. He thought he’d lost the race on Election Day, but realized it was still mathematically possible to pull ahead. He says the updated results still came as a shock, and are a reminder that every vote counts.
“I think this was probably the highest turnout we've had in a number of years, so I'm really happy that a lot of people got out and voted, and a lot of people voted early, and that makes me feel good,” he said.
Whitney says he’s already thinking about the work to come during his next three-year term, pointing to deferred maintenance at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex as a big priority.
For his part, Winters isn’t ruling out another mayoral run, but he says he’d be interested in city council, too. Next time, he says campaigning earlier to catch voters before they head out of state will be a priority.
