Fairbanks So Far. A 123-Vote Lead, 1,235 Ballots Out
The unofficial Fairbanks results printed at 9:57 a.m. on October 7th carry two columns of zeros, absentee and questioned.
The deck
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The story
How does Alexis Howell lead Miguel Ramirez by 123 in Seat D? Ramirez won Election Day by 639. Howell won early voting by 762. Seat H's lead came the same way.
Can the zeros change Seat D? They could. Up to 1,235 ballots are due to fill those columns at 2 p.m. on October 13th.
Is it a data center vote? Not directly, and a lead isn't a mandate. The Assembly asked the state for an AI data center moratorium. Howell agreed with one. Seat H leader Scott Crass voted for it. Ramirez wanted more study.
Election Day is set against early voting, then 32 precincts, Eielson's 24 Election Day ballots and every unofficial total.
If the leads hold, what can the winners fairly say voters told them about data centers?
What we verified
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Alexis Howell received 7,230 votes for Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly Seat D in the unofficial count of the October 6th election.
Miguel Ramirez received 7,107 votes for Assembly Seat D in the unofficial count.
Howell leads Ramirez by 123 votes in the unofficial Seat D count.
Ramirez won the Election Day ballots in Seat D 6,251 to 5,612.
Howell won the early voting ballots in Seat D 1,618 to 856.
Nick LaJiness received 7,919 votes for Assembly Seat E in the unofficial count.
Shelly Shupe received 6,599 votes for Assembly Seat E in the unofficial count.
LaJiness leads Shupe by 1,320 votes in the unofficial Seat E count.
LaJiness won the Seat E Election Day ballots 6,220 to 5,779.
LaJiness won the Seat E early voting ballots 1,699 to 820.
Scott W. Crass received 7,465 votes for Assembly Seat H in the unofficial count.
Joshua Leaders received 6,843 votes for Assembly Seat H in the unofficial count.
Crass leads Leaders by 622 votes in the unofficial Seat H count.
Leaders won the Seat H Election Day ballots 6,034 to 5,790.
Crass won the Seat H early voting ballots 1,675 to 809.
In two of the three Assembly races, Seats D and H, the candidate leading the unofficial total lost the Election Day count and was carried by early voting.
Ballots from 15,141 of the borough's 77,227 registered voters were counted so far in the unofficial report, a turnout so far of 19.61%, before 811 absentee and 424 questioned ballots are reviewed.
The unofficial report covered 32 of 35 precincts.
The unofficial report included no absentee ballots, with the absentee column at zero in every contest.
The borough reported 811 outstanding borough absentee ballots after election night.
The borough reported 424 outstanding borough questioned ballots after election night.
All qualified absentee and questioned ballots are to be counted on October 13th at 2 p.m.
The borough is scheduled to certify the election and swear in newly elected officials on October 22nd.
The 1,235 outstanding absentee and questioned ballots are about ten times Howell's 123 vote lead in Seat D.
Proposition 1 was a citizens' initiative to reenact borough code sections 8.04.290 and 8.04.300, which limit the borough's maximum allowable tax revenues.
Proposition 1 was approving 9,412 to 5,322 in the unofficial count.
Proposition 2 would move the borough's regular election from the first Tuesday in October to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
Proposition 2 was leading 8,088 to 6,749 in the unofficial count.
Proposition 3 would require all borough ballots to be hand counted by registered borough voters and prohibit electronic tabulation systems, effective in 2027.
Proposition 3 was failing 8,256 no to 6,633 yes in the unofficial count.
Counting Election Day ballots alone, Ramirez carried 20 of the 32 geographic precincts in Seat D and Howell carried 12.
On Election Day ballots, Howell's widest precinct margin in Seat D was Goldstream #2, 323 to 117.
On Election Day ballots, Ramirez's widest precinct margin in Seat D was Chena Lakes, 359 to 123.
Fort Wainwright's precinct recorded 59 Election Day ballots from 3,256 registered voters, an Election Day turnout of 1.81%.
The Eielson precinct recorded 24 Election Day ballots from 2,103 registered voters, an Election Day turnout of 1.14%, the lowest in the borough.
On Election Day ballots, Ester had the highest precinct turnout in the borough at 30.01%, with 406 ballots from 1,353 registered voters.
Ramirez, Shupe and Leaders each carried the Newby, Chena Lakes, Badger #1 and Plack precincts on Election Day.
Howell, LaJiness and Crass each carried the Ester and Farmers Loop precincts on Election Day.
Resolution 2026-25, identifying and supporting legislative priorities, was introduced August 27th by the Assembly's Committee of the Whole.
Resolution 2026-25 supports a moratorium on the permitting, leasing or construction of new commercial data centers on state-owned or municipal lands in Alaska.
The moratorium would last until the state and local governments adopt standards addressing six named impacts, electrical demand, water consumption and shortages, environmental impacts, noise, air quality, and land use pollution.
Koniag IT Systems LLC of Anchorage was awarded firm-fixed-price and time-and-materials contract HQ003426FE511.
The Koniag IT Systems contract has a value of $9,366,878.
The Koniag IT Systems contract would total $54,993,726 if all options are exercised.
The contract funds information technology, AI and machine learning programmatic support for the Pentagon's Office of the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer.
Funds of $4,600,000 were obligated when the Koniag IT Systems contract was awarded.
The Koniag IT Systems contract was awarded September 11th.
Work on the Koniag IT Systems contract will be performed in Falls Church, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of September 10th, 2031.
Washington Headquarters Services of Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity for the Koniag IT Systems award.
Ramirez's Election Day margin over Howell in Seat D was 639 votes.
Howell's early voting margin over Ramirez in Seat D was 762 votes.
Leaders' Election Day margin over Crass in Seat H was 244 votes.
Crass's early voting margin over Leaders in Seat H was 866 votes.
LaJiness led Shupe by 441 votes on Election Day and by 879 votes in early voting.
The precinct report lists the 2,603 early voting ballots as one row, 39-000 Early Voting, rather than by precinct.
On Election Day ballots, 27 of the 32 precincts went the same way in all three Assembly seats, 11 choosing Howell, LaJiness and Crass and 16 choosing Ramirez, Shupe and Leaders.
Howell, running for the open Seat D, agreed with the idea of a data center moratorium in the borough.
Howell said the borough's grid is struggling and that she would "hate to see us dump a data center on top of that."
Ramirez said he couldn't take a side on data centers without more study, saying "I can't really say 'yay' or 'nay' because I think there need to be more studies done."
LaJiness, seeking reelection to Seat E, said "I don't think that data centers are good for any community, to be honest with you."
Shupe described herself as between voters worried about data centers and those who don't want to dismiss them.
Crass, running to keep Seat H, defended his vote for the data center moratorium.
Crass said "Energy costs in our community have skyrocketed."
Leaders said he supports a temporary moratorium while data is collected and is open to data centers that benefit the community.
Seat D was open because incumbent Liz Reeves served one term and didn't seek reelection.
Crass was the Assembly's presiding officer and the incumbent in Seat H, and LaJiness was the incumbent in Seat E.
On August 27th the Assembly voted 6-1 to adopt 2027 legislative priorities that include a moratorium on commercial data centers.
The data center moratorium was the only item to appear on both the state and federal parts of the Assembly's 2027 priorities list.
The Assembly's 2027 list totals 25 priorities split between the state and federal levels.
The Pentagon wants to build up to a dozen military data centers near Anchorage, Healy and Fairbanks.
The Pentagon has offered to lease about 4,700 acres of government land to private companies for the data centers, and no projects had been awarded as of September 15th.
Koniag IT Systems is a subsidiary of Koniag Government Services, which describes itself as an Alaska Native Corporation.
A newly installed camera at the South Anchorage Lowe's was cut down at about 11:28 p.m. on October 4th, according to a report Lowe's filed.
Anchorage police confirmed the downed device was a Flock camera and not a municipal streetlight.
Flock said that the week before, it began installing license plate reader cameras for a private customer in Alaska.
APD's Real Time Crime Center page says the department doesn't use Flock cameras, and APD said it has no access to any video feed from the business.
A crowdsourced map called DeFlock identifies five automated license plate reader cameras in Juneau, all in city-owned parking garages.
Juneau's mapped license plate cameras are made by Genetec, have been in place for a few years and are used for parking enforcement.
Juneau Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said "We don't have Flock cameras, and we don't have any plans to install them."
Until recently Alaska was the only state without any Flock cameras, according to KTOO.
Beats
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