Andy Holleman has won the race for Anchorage School Board, edging out opponent Kay Schuster by only 55 votes, according to final Anchorage election results posted Friday.
In another close race, Turnagain Arm residents approved a ballot measure to tax themselves for police protection.
With that, the vote count is over, and elections officials are set to certify the results on Tuesday, said deputy city clerk Amanda Moser.
[Almost 80 percent of Anchorage didn't vote in the election. Here are some of the reasons why.]
Reached by phone Friday afternoon, Holleman said he was hesitant to declare victory given the razor-thin margin and would celebrate when the election was certified.
"I'll let the weekend go by and let the clerk take it to the Assembly and we'll celebrate then," said Holleman, a former president of the Anchorage Education Association teachers' union.
But Schuster said she was accepting the results and didn't plan to ask for a recount. She said she was disappointed by the outcome, as well as the low voter turnout in this year's election. Last year, she also narrowly lost a School Board race, winning 67 fewer votes than Starr Marsett.
"It's kind of disappointing to have it happen again," said Schuster, a supervising teacher at the Anchorage School District.
Until Friday, the results were also unknown for a special election for voters in Indian, Bird Creek and other communities along Turnagain Arm. The ballot proposition asked voters to tax themselves to create a fund that would pay for police service from the Anchorage Police Department.
The vote came several weeks before Alaska State Troopers were set to stop responding even to major crimes in the area. The measure passed by an 18-vote margin, with 85 Turnagain Arm residents voting "yes" and 67 voting "no."
Elections officials reviewed thousands of absentee and questioned ballots in the past week and a half. Moser, the deputy city clerk, said elections officials worked hard early in the week and were able to post the results earlier than in the past.
Citywide turnout ended up at 23.2 percent of registered voters.