By Sentinel Staff
BULLETIN - With all votes counted from Sitka's two precincts on election day today and in early voting, Katie Riley was the clear winner in the race for a seat on the City and Borough Assembly.
The contest was too close to call for the other open Assembly seat, with incumbent Thor Christianson just 14 votes ahead of Sherri Blankenship in unofficial results. Up to 77 absentee ballots have yet to be counted.
Ballot Prop. 1, to allow expanded uses of the dedicated hospital fund for city athletic and recreational facilities, passed by a clear margin of 1,230 to 761.
Ballot Prop. 2, to require future applications for citizen initiatives to have a professionally prepared economic impact study, failed, with 444 in favor and 1,587 against.
In the unofficial results for the Assembly race, Riley received 1,300 votes, followed by Christianson with 770, Blankenship with 756, Jonathan Wolf with 598, Austin Cranford with 277, and Tracie Castle with 126.
In other results Paul Rioux and Courtney Amundson were leading in the race for the two open seats on the School Board, with1,504 and 1,052 votes, respectively. Lance Ewers, the third candidate, received 734. The Board has a one-year term and a two-year term to be filled.
The absentee ballots will be counted 2 p.m. Friday at Harrigan Centennial Hall. The 839 early in-person ballots cast between Sept. 22 and Oct. 6 were counted after polls closed tonight, along with ballots cast today.
