Franklin County Election Results

It was Election Day on Tuesday, November 2. People across Franklin County headed out to the polls for the off-year election.

"It went really well," said Franklin County Auditor Katy Flint. "We didn't have any issues."

A number of contested races in the area gave a boost to the traditionally low off-year turnout. Roughly 22% of Franklin County voters participated in last week's election, up from the last comparable election in 2019.

Unofficial results of the election were posted on Tuesday night, just a few hours after the polls closed. Since then, the auditor's office has been updating the unofficial results as write-ins are sorted and tallied, which has impacted some races in the county. The final canvas will take place on Tuesday, at which point the election results will be made official.

With this election over, the auditor's office will be looking at the next election coming up in June of 2022, which will be primary season. In particular, volunteers are needed to staff polling centers for election day.

"We'll definitely be looking for more for the primary in June," said Flint.

City Election Results

Getting into the still unofficial election results in Franklin County, Hampton Mayor Russell Wood won re-election in an uncontested race, securing 484 votes.

For the Hampton City Council, incumbents won across the board, even with two out of three seats being contested. For the At-Large seat, incumbent Pat Palmer was re-elected over challenger Scott Stillwell with a 339-228 votes. In Ward 2, incumbent Barry Lamos was re-elected over challenger Amanda Fender with a 117-61 vote. Finally, incumbent Steve Birdsall was re-elected in an uncontested race with 125 votes.

In Latimer, incumbent mayor Mark Johansen won an uncontested race for re-election with 59 votes and incumbents Eric Bruns and Catherine Crooks were re-elected for the two open city council seats with 60 and 49 votes respectively.

In Coulter, Joel Lohrbach won the uncontested mayor race with 24 votes while Lon Allan and Myron Lawler filled the two open city council seats with 22 and 19 votes respectively.

There was an upset in Alexander as Brad Lawson launched a successful write-in campaign to unseat incumbent mayor Thomas Schear, receiving 13 write in votes over Schear's 8.

Write-in campaigns also determined the results of the city council race as Penny Lawson and Brad Peterson claimed the two open council seats with 12 and 15 votes, ousting incumbent council member Roy Arends, who received 11 votes.

In Geneva it was a contest of Todds as incumbent Mayor Todd Olmstead was challenged by Todd Pilchard. Olmstead won in a 26-7 vote as Pilchard instead asked his supporters to write him in on the city council.

However, with five seats open and four seats on the ballot, the fifth Geneva council seat went to Jesse Viet, who got 19 write-in votes. Viet will join Mark Diemer (33 votes), Kristi Schachterle (36 votes), Larry Kreimeyer (35 votes), and Jim Zacharias (15 votes) on the Geneva city council.

In Hansell, Kayla Norman won an uncontested race for mayor with 29 votes.

For the Hansell city council, five seats were open but only three people filed papers for the ballot. Jessica Kuebler (22 votes), Brian Harlan (26 votes), and Nichole Marie Harlan (28 votes), will be joined by write-in winners Joe Hanna (three votes) and Paula Mennenga (four votes).

For the City of Popejoy, Dale Maas won an uncontested race for mayor with 11 votes. For the five open seats on the city council, next years council will be made up of Ronald Allan (10 votes), Dennis Bradley (10 votes), Shi Oelman-Trenary (six votes), Sean Ludwig (six votes), and write-in candidate Gina Bradley (six votes). Also on the ballot, Jason Nohrenberg received four votes.

Finally, in Sheffield, incumbent mayor Scott Sanders won re-election over challenger Lance Groh in a 143-110 vote. The two open seats on the Sheffield city council will go to Ryan Kruger (157 votes) and Julia Showalter (115 votes). Also long the ballot was incumbent James Robbins (101 votes), Ryan Sanders (59 votes), and Tyler Letellier (46 votes).

School Election Results

Three seats for the Hampton-Dumont school board were open. For the open at-large seat, Brent Hansen unseated incumbent Jeff Rosenberg with a 603-321 vote. For the two open seats in the Hampton district, incumbent Stephanie Powers was re-elected with 478 votes. The second seat went to Elisa Van Wert, who received 704 votes over Danielle Benavidez' 247.

In the CAL district the races were less contentious. Bradley Wessels won an uncontested race for the District 1 seat with 124 votes. Incumbent Elizabeth Podolan was re-elected for District 2 with 113 votes. Nobody filed papers for the at-large seat, but Liliana Velasco won the election with 17 write-in votes.