The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly certified the October municipal election on Thursday in a unanimous vote. That vote covers both assembly and school board races.
A total of 15,938 people voted in the borough elections, making turnout about 20.5%.
Borough Clerk April Trickey presented the canvass board’s final report at the meeting. She said the board found no irregularities, and she outlined the reasons for the election’s 94 challenged ballots.
According to Trickey, 34 were cast by people not registered to vote in Alaska; 22 were cast by people who registered to vote too late; 26 were cast by people registered in another jurisdiction; two were because of voters’ felony convictions; three people voted twice; five people didn’t provide an identifier when signing their absentee ballot; one person didn’t sign the oath when returning their absentee ballot; and one absentee ballot was postmarked late.
Trickey also noted that the borough’s new hand count audit didn’t turn up any discrepancies between the manual verification and the machine tabulations.
“I would just say that I request that you would accept the report of the election canvass board, and that the assembly would move to … declare that the regular election of Oct. 7, 2025, was validly held,” she said.
After the election was certified, Trickey swore in the victorious candidates for assembly. Their terms in office officially began Monday.
That sees Patrick Roach replace Barbara Haney in Seat I. Roach beat Haney by about 2,100 votes in this year’s election. Haney had served one, three-year term.
Garret Armstrong takes over Seat C. That spot had been held by Mindy O’Neall, the now-former assembly presiding officer. O’Neall served six years on the assembly and had termed out; she ran in and won the race for Fairbanks city mayor this year.
Armstrong lost a bid for assembly in last year’s election against current member Tammie Wilson. This time around, Armstrong claimed an assembly seat with a roughly 2,000-vote margin over his closest challenger, J.T. McComas-Roe. Jeanne Olson also ran in the race, finishing in third.
Thursday’s ceremony also saw Brett Rotermund sworn in for a second term. He holds Seat B and won reelection over write-in candidate Allegory Smith.
The Assembly adopted and read two resolutions at the meeting to thank O’Neall and Haney for their service and highlight some of their achievements. Some of Haney’s supporters also turned out Thursday, with more than a dozen people voicing their appreciation for her at the meeting.