Zaletel still defeating recall effort with less than 100 ballots added to tally

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Updated preliminary results from Tuesday’s special election to decide the effort to recall Anchorage Assembly member Meg Zaletel still show her retaining her seat. At this point, ballots continue to trickle in by mail.

Updated unofficial results posted Friday by the Municipal Clerk’s Office show 59.9% of Midtown voters rejecting the recall, and just over 40% voting in favor of the recall. That margin has changed only slightly this week as more ballots have been added to the tally.

The updated results show 10,715 ballots cast so far, which is about a 25% turnout of the registered voters in Midtown Anchorage.

Election officials added just 98 ballots to the tally since Wednesday. There are a total of 6,399 votes counted against the recall, and 4,285 votes so far in favor of it.

Ballots sent in via mail still have until Nov. 8 to arrive and be counted, as long as they were postmarked by Oct. 26, but election officials won’t likely be adding large numbers of ballots to the tally. The only ballots left to count at this point, according to Deputy Clerk for elections Erika McConnel, are those the staff receive in the mail each day, questioned ballots, special needs ballots and ballots cured by voters.

“To date, we have received approximately 10,950 ballot return envelopes,” McConnel said via email.

Zaletel said on Tuesday night that she would wait for the official results but that she hoped “this puts the distraction behind us and I can continue to do the important work of representing Midtown.”