Mayor race still too close to call

November 11th 7:24 pm | Carey Restino    

If the candidates for the mayor's seat at the top of

the world were looking for a conclusion to the contentious

race, they were disappointed Tuesday

night despite a speedy reporting from all precincts

in the face of a vicious winter storm.

George Ahmaogak, Sr., and Charlotte Brower,

candidates for North Slope Borough Mayor, continue

to suffer an uncertain fate with 65 votes

separating the two and 268 ballots yet to be

counted, according to unofficial initial

results from the North Slope Borough.

Brower led the vote count as of Tuesday

night with 906 votes to Ahmaogak's 841.

Voter turnout for the runoff election was

34 percent, hardly surprising considering

the massive storm bearing down on the

region on the day of the runoff election.

Election workers had to deal with significant

uncertainty as many smaller precincts

simultaneously prepared for the storm and

kept polls open. Voters last month narrowly

chose Brower and Ahmaogak from a pool of

five candidates. The third-highest vote-getter,

Fenton Rexford, launched a write-in

campaign after his election candidacy

paperwork was delayed in the mail and

missed the deadline. Rexford , who won just

over 27 percent of the vote, announced last

Thursday that he endorsed Ahmaogak for

mayor.

The campaign was colored by the indictment

of Ahmaogak's wife, Maggie, for

embezzling some $475,000 from the Alaska

Eskimo Commission just weeks before the

election.

The candidates exchanged political potshots

in the final weeks of the runoff election

campaign, dredging up a history of

political wrongdoings by family members

and close advisors.

Brower's husband, Eugene, plead guilty to

tax evasion when he was borough mayor in

the 1980s. Meanwhile, George Ahmaogak,

Sr., was forced to pay back thousands of dollars

to the North Slope Borough for a trip he

took to Hawaii in the '90s.

Ahmaogak Brower

Barrow 187 195

Anaktuvuk Pass 44 20

Atqasuk 39 21

Kaktovik 44 26

Nuiqsut 24 63

Point Hope 35 38

Point Lay 54 110

Wainwright 6 25

Browerville 407 408

TOTAL 841 906

PERCENTAGE 48.14% 51.66%

 

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