By ELLEN MORTENSEN
Chief Managing Editor
It took less than two hours Tuesday night for the ballots to be counted and results announced. With less than 40 percent of registered voters in Custer County making their way to the polls, the outcome produced some expected results to many, as well as some surprises. With around 300 absentee ballots still out, the following numbers remain preliminary.
Perhaps the two most talked about issues, locally at least, were a $9.4 million school bond proposal and a proposed .15 cent tax levy override for School District 25. Both of those issues not only failed, but did so by a sizeable margin. Results for the levy override showed 1,252 votes against and 500 votes for. Meanwhile, the school bond was defeated by a margin of about 75 percent against to 25 percent in favor, with the numbers showing 437 votes in favor of the bond and 1,315 opposed.
For more election results, see this week's Custer County Chief.
The race for member of Board of Education for District 25, Broken Bow, has also been a hot topic in recent weeks, with eight candidates vying for three positions. Of those eight, six will move on to the general election in November.
Candidates for the school board were Michelle Zlomke, Brian Deakin, Keith McCaslin, Gary Lawrence, Pamela Fisher, Ken Myers, Matthew Haumont and John Evans. Of those, Fisher and McCasling were eliminated from the race. Preliminary figures indicate Haumont receiving the most votes with 821, followed by Evans with 726, Myers with 697, Zlomke with 691, Lawrence with 552 and Deaking with 552. McCaslin garnered 360 votes, while Fisher ended up with 373 at the end of the night.
In the race for Board of Education for District 15, Anselmo-Merna, there were nine candidates trying to advance to the November election and win one of three spots on the board. Those candidates were Sharon Beals, Allen Fales, Kyle Cantrell, Kyle Geiser, Clifford Burnett, Cynthia Boyd, Joel Bartak, Michelle Miller and Kevin Safranek.
Safranek currently leads the race with 215, followed by Bartak with 175, Geiser with 145, Miller with 143 and Cantrell with 105. Only one vote separates the next two candidates, with Fales garnering 82 votes to Beals’ 81. Burnet was next with 75, followed by Boyd with 66. With three of the candidates being eliminated, a great deal of significance hinges on the absentee ballots yet to come in.
In other local races of interest, Custer County Supervisor in-cumbent Ron Jorgenson in District 6, was upset by Roy William Lichtenberger on the Republican side by a count of 171 to 102. On the Distrct 6 Democratic ticket, Richard Walter ran unopposed.
In District 4, Mark Haynes defeated Raymond Driscoll 365 to 93 on the Republican ticket, while on the Democratic side Clifford Klein defeated Alan Jacquot, 80 to 64. Republican incumbent Larry Hickenbottom ran unopposed in District 2.