GVEA 2025 Election Results
July 23, 2025
By Brian Kassof
Members in GVEA’s District 6 elected John Sloan to a 3-year term on the cooperative’s board. Sloan won a narrow victory, receiving eight more votes than his opponent, incumbent Fred Sheen. An election was also scheduled for GVEA’s District 5 this year, but it was cancelled because a single candidate was running unopposed. As per GVEA policy, the Board voted to appoint that candidate, Bradley Swope, to the seat. Swope and Sloan began their terms at GVEA’s June 24 meeting.
Turnout in District 6, which encompasses the area around Delta Junction, was 18.3% (374 out of 2,043 eligible members). This is similar to District 6’s 2022 turnout (18%). 296 members voted by mail (79%), while 78 (21%) voted online. GVEA does not have in-person voting at its annual meeting, which occurs before the election opens.
In District 6, John Sloan won a close race over incumbent Fred Sheen. Sloan received 191 votes (51.1%) to Sheen’s 183 (48.9%). Sloan had previously served five terms on the GVEA Board representing District 6, from 2007 to 2022, before opting not to run in 2022. He is a retired elementary school teacher.
John Sloan, from his GVEA board profile
In District 5, this year’s election was cancelled because there was only one candidate running. In March, the GVEA Board voted to appoint that candidate, Bradley Swope, to the seat. Swope, a veteran, works as a Physical Security Specialist for the US Army. District 5 includes the area around North Pole. The incumbent for District 5, Chris Bunch, opted not to run for reelection. GVEA’s Board has been in the practice of appointing unopposed candidates to board seats for a number of years, in order to save the cost of running a one-candidate election. This practice was incorporated into the cooperative’s Bylaws in 2024.
Bradley Swope, from his GVEA board profile
This year’s election was marked by a degree of controversy over the nominating process in District 6. The Nominating Committee in that district (GVEA has separate Nominating Committees for each of its seven districts) only advanced a single candidate, incumbent Fred Sheen, to the ballot, passing over a second, seemingly qualified candidate. It is not known if that candidate was Sloan, who got on the ballot through GVEA’s candidate petition process. Until this year, nominating committees were required to advance at least two candidates. If there was only a single candidate, the nominating committee could not advance anyone, and the candidate had to reapply to run through the petition process. In 2024, the GVEA Board recommended, and members approved, a bylaw change allowing nominating committees to advance a single candidate, to eliminate this extra step. AETP will be writing about the roles of the nominating and election committees at Railbelt cooperatives in the near future.
GVEA members will elect directors in Districts 1, 2, and 3 in 2026.
