Incumbents hang on to their posts
Out of 2,662 eligible voters registered to vote in Nome, only 492, or 18.48 percent, made it to Old St. Joe’s last week to cast their ballots for one mayor, two council members, two Nome Joint Utilities Board seats and two School Board seats. The following results were canvassed by the Nome Common Council on Thursday: The only race that saw a challenger to the incumbent was the race for mayor. Incumbent Richard Beneville prevailed and garnered 300 votes, or 62 percent of the vote, with challenger Keith Morrison receiving 175, or 36 percent of the vote. Beneville now will start his third two-year term as mayor of Nome. There were 12 write ins for the mayoral race.
Council seat E, a three-year seat, was uncontested and incumbent Jerald Brown received 420 votes. There were 30 write-ins.
Council seat F, also a three-year seat, did not see any competition either and incumbent Mark Johnson got 425 votes. There were 33 write-ins.
Incumbent of Utility Board seat A, a two-year term, is Pat Knodel and he received 437 votes. He also ran uncontested. There were 18 write-ins.
Incumbent of Utility Board seat D, Chuck Wheeler, did not run again and there was no candidate for that seat. Voters cast 180 write-in votes. Of those, 29 votes were for Larry Pederson, 26 votes were for Gerald Hughes and 125 votes for other people. There will be a runoff election between those two write-in candidates. Seat D holds a three-year term.
Incumbents for School Board seats A and E were also re-elected. Seat A, held by Darlene Trigg, is a three-year seat and 388 voters cast their ballots for her to continue to serve on the board. There were 47 write-in votes.
School Board seat E incumbent Dr. Barb Amarok received 404 votes, with 42 write-ins.
There was no ballot measure to be voted on in this 2019 municipal election.
In the regional REAA elections for school board members for the Bering Strait School district, unofficial results indicate that Annie Weyiouanna who ran uncontested won Seat A with 79 votes cast for her and 20 write-ins. BSSD school board seat E saw a two-way race between Joseph Murray and Silas Panipchuk. Panipchuk won the seat with 119 votes cast for him and 65 votes cast for Murray. There were seven write-in votes.
The unofficial Norton Sound Development Corporation election results for community representatives are as follows: For Brevig Mission representative, Sara Seetot received 37 out of 72 votes cast. For Diomede, Frances Ozenna received 13 out of 13 votes. In Shaktoolik, Harvey Sookiayak received 65 of 90 votes. In White Mountain, Dan Harrelson received 39 of 60 votes. A runoff election will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 9 between Frank Katchatag and Jeff Erickson. The NSEDC board will review and ratify the election results during their third quarter meeting.
