With just under 20% voter turnout overall, Fairbanks voted overwhelmingly to keep a tight reign on borough taxation powers, but most conservative candidates were trailing on election night.

Of the 78,129 registered voters, just 18,379 bothered to cast a ballot. The majority clearly wanted to maintain the status quo when it comes to borough taxation powers, with Proposition 1 passing 66.17% to 33.83%.

Despite a fiscally conservative outcome, election night had a slew of left-leaning candidates narrowly ahead of their more conservative counterparts.

Hard leftist mayoral candidate Greir Hopkins leads longtime former State Senator John Coghill – 48.17% to 47.93%. Out of 15,060 votes cast, Hopkins has just a 43-vote edge. With more than 1,500 outstanding absentee and questioned ballots yet to be tallied, the final outcome could still change.

All qualified absentee and questioned ballots will be counted on October 8, which could also impact several other races.

Conservative Borough Assembly Candidate Tammie Wilson was narrowly ahead of Garret Armstrong – 50.7% to 49%, while left-leaning Assembly candidate Kristan Kelly was slightly ahead of conservative Jimi Cash – 50.5% to 49.1%.

In the third Assembly contest, left-leaning incumbent David Guttenberg was leading conservative challenger Miguel Ramirez, 53.7% to 45.9%. This race is unlikely to change once the remaining ballots are counted.

Both school board races are also too close to call.

Conservative April Smith is slightly behind hard-left Morgan Dulian – 48.9% to 50.4%, while the more conservative Loa Carroll-Hubbard is leading extreme leftist Tamara Kruse Roselius – 50.5% to 48.8%.

Click here to see the results  from the Fairbanks and North Pole city council and mayoral contests.

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