County voter turnout good
By Pat McTaggart
Rivers Co-Editor
Once again, the residents of Clayton County turned out to vote in numbers higher than the national average. A total of 71.39%, or 9,022 of the county’s 12,637 registered voters, cast ballots, compared to the national average of 64-65%.
“This was a good turnout,” County Auditor Dennis Freitag said. “It was up a little bit percentage wise from 2004.
Senator John McCain received 3,640 votes (40%) in the county compared to 45% statewide and 46% nationwide. Senator Barack Obama garnered 5,174 votes (57%) countywide compared to 52% nationwide and 54% statewide.
In the Iowa senate race (12th District), Brian Schoenjahn (D) had 5618 votes and challenger Rebecca Wearmouth (R) had 2916. State Representative Roger Thomas (24th District) was unopposed and had 7074 votes.
Incumbent Supervisor Larry Gibbs (D) held his position against Steven Trumblee (R) by a margin of 4568-4022. Challenger Mike Tschirgi (R) defeated incumbent Robert Hamman (D) for the position of County Sheriff with a tally of 4976 to 3814. County Auditor Dennis Freitag (R) had 7030 votes and was unopposed. The constitutional amendment rewording the definitions of who could and could not vote passed by a vote of 6091 to 1523.
This is the third election since 2001 that voters have used different machines or ballots. In 2001 the county was mandated to buy EV2000 touch screen voting machines at a cost of $250,000. The county received $50,000 reimbursement for the machines. In 2004, the law changed again with the Help America Vote Act, and the state replaced the EV2000 with a new touch screen machine that could accommodate persons with visual disabilities
This year’s ballots were paper and had to be read by a machine. The county paid $6,000 to have the ballots printed, but the machines that read them were purchased by the state. The 2004 touch screens were traded in and sold to other states.
Although some people had to wait a few minutes to vote this year, Freitag said everything went smoothly. “We had no problems and no complaints about the ballots,” he said. “The first thing in the morning was the busiest and we had some lines, but they didn’t last long.”
This article was the feature front page story in River to River News!
WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU MISSED IN RIVER TO RIVER NEWS???
