Mark Johnson wins city runoff election

Unofficial results of the November 1 municipal runoff election between Nome Common Council seat F incumbent Matt Culley and challenger Mark Johnson suggest that Johnson won by a significant margin.
Out of the 488 voters who cast  ballots, 337 (69.92 percent) voted for Johnson and 145 (30.08 percent) voted for Culley, according to unofficial results from Nome City Clerk Bryant Hammond.
Shortly after closing of the polls at 8 p.m. at Old St. Joe’s Hall, city employees and election officials did the final count.
Johnson received 122 votes in Precinct 1, 196 in Precinct 2 and 19 votes in absentee ballots.
Culley received 64 votes in Precinct 1, 70 votes in Precinct 2 and 11 votes in absentee ballots.
There were six questioned ballots.
Out of 2,499 registered voters in Nome, 488 showed up to vote, which is a voter turnout of 19.53 percent, a slight improvement over the voter participation in the municipal election held on Oct. 4.
The runoff election became necessary because none of the three candidates running for seat F garnered 50 percent plus one vote to win.
In the runoff election no write-ins are possible and a simple majority of votes decides the winner.
The canvassing took place on Thursday at noon, at the Richard Foster Building since auditors are using council chambers this week.