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Bristol Bay Borough postpones election until November

Isabelle Ross/KDLG

Missing information in the original election announcement led the borough assembly to postpone the general election. Residents will have the opportunity to vote in a special election on Nov. 5. 

The Bristol Bay Borough’s general election has been postponed. The borough assembly voted Monday night to do so, and to instead hold a special election on Nov. 5.

Gregg Brelsford, the borough manager, said the assembly decided to postpone the election to correct procedural mistakes in the original election announcement.

“Last week the borough discovered that there were some mistakes in satisfying the borough code procedural requirements for the Oct. 1 election,” Brelsford said.

The borough code requires that the public election announcement include certain information, which the borough's initial announcement didn’t have. For instance, Brelsford said, the original notice didn’t list the hours for the polling places or state which election district they were in.

“It’s that kind of granular detail that the code requires, and that was not satisfied this time," Brelsford said. "But it’s not substantive things, but it’s important things, and therefore the assembly decided to postpone the election for about a month.”

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Three residents had already cast absentee ballots in the Oct. 1 election. They will receive new ballots in the mail and will have to vote again.

Brelsford said there would be no changes to the ballot heading into November. Along with the proposed fish tax, three candidates are running for two open assembly seats – Gene Sanderson and incumbents Shelby Boothe and Pete Caruso. Sheri Onate is running unopposed for the open school board seat. All positions are three-year terms.

Contact the author at isabelle@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200.

Izzy Ross is the news director at KDLG, the NPR member station in Dillingham. She reports, edits, and hosts stories from around the Bristol Bay region, and collaborates with other radio stations across the state.
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