Low numbers turnout for general election
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By Carmen Ensinger
It was a gorgeous day for the consolidated election on April 4, but that still didn’t bring many people out to cast their ballots.
Less than 16 percent of Greene County voters felt a need to make their voice heard when it comes to local politics. Out of a total of 9,174 registered voters, only 1,449 made it to the polls, which comes to only 15.79 percent of the population of the county.
Still, the few that did cast their ballots were able to cause a few upsets and maybe even a few surprises.
The most contested races were, by far, the Carrollton and North Greene school board races.
Carrollton is broken down into Congressional Townships and no more than three members can be from any one township.
Carrollton had two people running for an unexpired two-year term – Alan Graham from Carrollton and Amber Flowers from Eldred. That seat would be filled first and the winner of that seat would determine where the three people vying for the four-year terms would come from. There was already one Carrollton person seated on the board so if Graham got it, that would mean only one Carrollton resident could be elected and the two Eldred candidates (Robert Scott Bryant and incumbent Rodney Reif) would automatically be elected to the board, regardless of their vote count.
However, that wasn’t the case. Flowers received 76 percent of the vote with 511 votes to Graham’s 159 votes for 24 percent, which meant two Carrollton candidates could be elected if they received enough votes.
Which turns out to be the case. Former teacher and coach Jeff Krumwiede was the top vote getter with 454 votes (25.80 percent), followed by Bryant with 401 (22.78 percent) and Aaron Mehrhoff with 353 (20.06 percent). The other two candidates who did not get elected were Reif with 244 (13.86 percent) and Kari Manker with 308 (17.50 percent.)
North Greene School Board has an “at-large” district meaning their school board members can be from anywhere in the district. They had six people running for four open seats on the board. Four of those were incumbents – Kevin Nichols, Rachelle Malin, Casey Kallal and Casey Nell. Newcomers seeking their first term on the board were Chris Ford and Tracie Holbert.
Ford turned out to be the top vote-getter of all the candidates with 302 votes (20.74 percent). He will be joined on the board by incumbents Nell with 264 votes (18.13 percent), Nichols with 256 votes (17.58 percent) and Malin with 240 votes (16.48 percent). Kallal received 217 votes (14.90 percent) and Holbert 177 votes (12.16 percent).
Greenfield School Board had four candidates for four open seats – Chris Weller, Cody Vinyard, Kate Garner and Josh Roberts. Roberts was the top vote getter with 198 followed by Garner with 193, Vinyard with 187 and Weller with 184.
In the city and village races, both Carrollton and White Hall had one contested race in their wards while Greenfield had two contested races.
In Carrollton, incumbent Tim Reif in Ward 1 was defeated by Peggy Clough. Reif received 55 votes (35.71 percent) to Clough’s 99 votes (64.29 percent).
In White Hall, to serve a two-year term in Ward 2, incumbent Brandon Roberts was being challenged by Ryan McMillen. Both candidates ended up with 27 votes – a tie.
The winner of that race will not be decided until after all of the mail-in ballots are in. As of Monday, there were still 214 ballots out which could come in and affect their race. The last day that those ballots can come in will be April 16. After that date, the winner will be announced, unless there is another tie.
With so many ballots still outstanding, it might be interesting to see if any other races might be affected, such as Ward 1 in Greenfield. Where John Hardwick, Jr. narrowly defeated Robert K. Bob Rives to retain his seat on the board by a mere four votes. Hardwick received 24 votes to Rives’ 20.
In Ward 3, Terry Plogger easily defeated Kyle Kuhnline, garnering 26 votes to Kuhnline’s 9.
For Eldred Village Trustee, there were six candidates running for three open seats. The three top vote getters were Robert Vetter with 35 votes (26.92 percent), Cody Rogers Portwood with 33 votes (25.38 percent) and Jennifer Richey with 32 votes (24.62 percent). Other candidates were Patti Carey, Misty Knapp and Lena Robeen who received 16, 8 and 6 votes, respectively.
