Fairbanks North Star Borough and Nenana will face a tough mayoral race after Election Day

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) – With up to 1,500 votes potentially remaining to be counted, the Fairbanks North Star Borough mayor’s race has a difference of just 43 votes between the two leading candidates.

Currently, Grier Hopkins is in the lead with 43 votes, with John Coghill in second place.

This difference represents less than a quarter of a percent of the vote, as more than 18,000 ballots were cast.

The counting of question and postal ballots is scheduled for Tuesday, October 8th.

Reacting to the numbers, Hopkins said: “I’m proud to now be ahead by around 40 votes and look forward to the final results on Tuesday.”

“It was a big, robust campaign where at the end we made an incredible effort to get voters to vote with over 25,000 calls and 3,000 door knocks and I’m excited to see the results that will be achieved, but I have “Done it.” “Learn a lot about our community and a lot about what people want by listening to them at the door and on the phone,” he explained.

“I will definitely be there on Tuesday and see the results. 1,500 votes left, give or take, certainly provides the opportunity to change the outcome of this election, so hopefully our hard work was worth it,” Hopkins added.

Coghill, meanwhile, said: “I was disappointed that I did worse, that’s for sure, but I’m not completely surprised.” I knew during the season that it would be a very close race, so I wasn’t surprised. “

“We were both well received, but I noticed that people were really thinking about, ‘Who should we vote for?’ I think the question I’ve heard most often is, ‘You’re both really nice guys.’ What’s the big difference?’ Do you know?” he added.

It is unclear whether the counting of surveyed ballots and absentee ballots will have any impact on the results. However, this would not be the first time in recent years that the final count has changed compared to Election Day.

Just two years ago, incumbent Aaron Gibson entered election night with a 14-vote lead over challenger Crystal Tidwell in a race for Fairbanks City Council.

At the end of the count, Tidwell had an 11-point lead.

Historically, the Interior Department is no stranger to close races: Bart LeBon won his bid for the state Legislature by a single vote in 2018.

Meanwhile, another vote 50 miles away resulted in a dead heat as the race for mayor of the town of Nenana is tied.

Each candidate, Jeremiah “JT” Baker and Joshua Verhagen, received 85 votes.

Up to 15 postal votes and 12 challenge votes may need to be counted on Tuesday.

This count will take place at 5:30 p.m. that day at the Civic Center in Nenana during a City Council meeting.

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