Credit: Lauren Rosenthal

Though there aren't many contested races in today's municipal elections, it could still be an interesting night for Unalaska's election staff.

City clerk Elizabeth Masoni says the voting machine that reads ballots has broken down -- for the first time in years.

"We're going to talk to the people in Omaha, which is where the machine is programmed," Masoni says.

They'll walk through the problem and try to get it fixed before it's time to tally the votes.

"And if not, we will hand count!" Masoni says.

About 180 ballots had been cast as of this afternoon, along with 20 absentee ballots. There are about 1700 registered voters in the city. Masoni says the number of voters seems about average.

"In any kind of a local election, when there isn't a big question on the ballot, we don't always have a really big turnout," Masoni says.

Of the seven seats up for a vote today, only two are contested. Katherine Labert has been running a write-in campaign against Roger Rowland for city council seat C.

According to city code, volunteers don't have to read written-in names unless the total number of write-in votes is greater than the number of votes for the candidate on the ballot.

Masoni says she's been seeking guidance from the state Division of Elections on how to count the write-in ballots if voters get confused. Labert has lived in Unalaska for more than 30 years and even served on city council before -- but she recently changed her last name when she got married.

Unalaska's election committee has been instructed to accept any quote-reasonable interpretation of a write-in candidate's name. Masoni says means vote counters would probably accept ballots that say "Katherine McGlashan" instead of "Katherine Labert."

There's one other contested race on the ballot: Fernando Barrera is challenging recent school board appointee Denise Rankin for her seat. Barrera has been posting signs around town to campaign and today, a truck painted with his name was parked across the street from City Hall.

It was more than 100 feet from the entrance to the building, which is all that is required in city code, so Masoni says the truck was allowed to stay put.

School board president Tammy Fowler Pound is running for reelection today along with new school board member Abner Hoage. City councilors Alejandro "Bong" Tungul and Dave Gregory are up for election, as is mayor Shirley Marquardt. They are all running unopposed.

The polls will be open until 8 p.m. Members of the public are invited to watch volunteers count ballots after that, but Masoni says any visitors must be inside the building before the doors close at 8 p.m.