Talis Colberg garners the votes for Mayor

MAT-SU — Talis Colberg garnered enough votes to become the Mayor of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough in unofficial results so far.

At the polls tonight, 2,541 voters chose Colberg or some 63 percent of the poll vote. Another 1,091 votes, including absentee, questioned, and special needs ballots, still remain to be counted. Overall, Colberg needs more than 40 percent to become mayor.

"I'm very pleased, I'm astonished by the margin," Colberg said by phone. "I look forward to the opportunity and want to be a good mayor."

At the polls, candidate Bruce Walden followed in second with 772 votes, and Steve Menard in third with 452.

Seven candidates filed to run for mayor. The office was vacated in March with the death of Mayor Curtis D. Menard.

Not all the votes are tallied. 863 absentee ballots were issued, 219 questioned ballots, and 9 special needs ballots remain to be counted. Absentee ballots had to be postmarked by today but can arrive by mail until Friday.

Tomorrow at 9 a.m., the canvass board begins meeting to count the outstanding votes. The canvass board must finalize their canvassing of the ballots by June 23 for the Assembly to certify.

The MAT-SU mayor is the ceremonial head of the Borough. The administrative power of the Borough is vested in the Manager. The mayor does not vote, except in the case of a tie. The mayor may veto. A mayoral term is normally three years, but the winning candidate of this race will only fill the remaining time of Mayor Menard's term. The mayoral seat will again be on the ballot in October.

The mayor's annual salary is $19,325.

To see the turnout at the individual precincts visit the front of the Borough web page at www.matsugov.us.

For more information call Public Affairs Director Patty Sullivan at 745-9577 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.