Unalaska, AK – A record number of voters turned out to the polls for yesterday's Unalaska City Council election, electing three new council members. Rocky Caldero beat Augie Kochuten for council seat B, 359 votes to 237. Juanita Lewis beat Donna Rahn for seat F 359-221, and Dick Peck beat Tino Castaneda and Valarie Lemas for seat G, 255-136-173.

According to City Clerk Debra Mack, about 640 ballots were cast on Tuesday, beating the previous record of 626. That was ten years ago, when a proposition to increase sales tax by one percent was on the ballot.

A major factor in the record-breaking numbers was a large turnout by employees of the UniSea seafood processing plant. Both Rocky Caldero and Donna Rahn work for UniSea, and Caldero says that about 150 of the company's employees voted yesterday. But those ballots weren't enough to get Rahn a seat, and Caldero says the company's influence on the election wasn't what some detractors made it out to be.

"Regardless of what a lot of people think, the seafood plants don't hold the votes," he said. "They have the majority of the people on the island, but they're not the ones that control the votes."

One of Tuesday night's surprises was that the three-way race for council seat G did not result in a runoff election. By law, the winning candidate must have at least 40 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff. Dick Peck squeaked by with 43.6 percent. He said that he had expected to go another round against Lemas, who came in second with 29.6 percent of the vote.

On Friday, the 17 absentee ballots cast in Tuesday's election will be opened at City Hall. That process is open to the public.