News in Kenai, AK

Alaska Beacon · Kenai, AK

Alaska voters on track to reject 2 Kenai judges in initial election results

Alaska voters in the Third Judicial District opted to reject two state judges standing for retention in the midterm election by wide margins in initial results on Tuesday. The vote comes after the non-partisan Alaska Judicial Council — charged with vetting and nominating judges, as well as conducting performance evaluations — issued a rare recommendation for voters not to retain the two judges in this election. They were the only two they recommended not be retained out of 21 judges standing for retention elections. For another Juneau judge, they issued no recommendation. Voters opting to retain Kenai Superior Court Judge Kelly Lawson and District Court Judge Martin Fallon were outnumbered by “no” votes, according to initial results released by the Alaska Division of Elections. As of Wednesday, 58% of voters voted “no” to retain Lawson, and 41.8% voted “yes” — a 16 point margin, or 19,939 vote split.