Local election wraps up —results expected Friday

Voting was steady on Tuesday —election day for the City and Borough of Juneau.

But with thousands of votes cast by mail, preliminary results won’t be available until the end of the week at the earliest, said City Clerk Beth McEwen in an interview.

“I anticipate unofficial results on Friday,” McEwen said.

Much of Juneau had already submitted their ballots by mail by last weekend, McEwen said.

[Today is election day. Here’s how to vote if you haven’t yet cast a ballot]

“As of Saturday (Oct. 2), we were processing about 4,800 ballots,” McEwen said. “We have about eight people doing pieces of it.”

At City Hall, McEwen said, voting was proceeding smoothly, with a decent lunch crowd.

“It’s been pretty steady,” McEwen said.”I think election day, we’re always going to have that uptick.”

Elsewhere in Juneau, in-person voting had been a little cooler, with “small and slight” start at the Mendenhall Valley Public Library, though officials present noted things on Monday had heated up in the afternoon.

“It builds through the day,” said election official Jack Chenoweth in an interview. “First week was very slow. Second week, it picked up. Yesterday was gangbusters.”

Chenoweth said about three -quarters of voters who came into the center were dropping off ballots, about one-fifth of people coming in reported not receiving a ballot or needing a new ballot, and the remainder of voters had questioned ballots or were at the vote center for another inquiry.

James Jenkins was among the dozen or so people to cast ballots at the library before 9 a.m.

“I always try to vote,” Jenkins said in an interview. “I think it’s one of our duties as Americans to vote.”

• Contact reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or mlockett@juneauempire.com.