Hamilton County tops 80% voter turnout

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Unofficial results show Trump a decisive winner locally

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  • Unofficial election results
    Unofficial election results
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Hamilton County showed up in force for Tuesday’s General Election, with more than 80 percent of registered voters weighing in.
In accordance with the unofficial election results from Hamilton County, as of noon on Nov. 4, 5,607 ballots were cast in this year’s election. Out of 6,813 registered voters in Hamilton County, this produced an impressive 82.3 percent voter turnout rate for the county. Out of the 5,607 total votes, 3,727 of those were cast on Election Day and 1,880 were cast as early-voters.
“It was an exciting day I tell you what,” said County Clerk Jill DeMers, who serves as the county’s election commissioner. “We ended up having an 82 percent turnout.”
Further, according to DeMers, the Primary Election -- which had an impressive turnout compared to previous years -- only reached about 50 percent turnout.
“In 2014 we had between 40 percent some precincts that went up to 72 percent,” she reported. “But then, the primaries are usually a little bit lower. Usually it’s between 15 percent or 30 percent turnout for the primary. So it was very exciting yesterday.”
DeMers agreed that it was busier than expected on Election Day, with a steady flow of people at the Farr Building from open until the close of polls.
“And it was a beautiful day for it,” she said.
Even COVID precautions were met with ease.
“I had it spaced out pretty well at the Farr Building,” DeMers reported. “We were able to do that, and I think everyone is just used to it now. Of course we had our signs and we had a lot of PPE equipment there from the Secretary of State. Everyone was very respectful (of social distancing).

Election results
For president and vice president, a total of 5,553 votes were cast. Broken down this stands as 3,695 on Election Day and 1,858 early votes. There were 4,297 total votes for Trump/Pence (R), 1,117 votes for Biden/Harris (D), 106 votes for Jorgensen/Cohen, with 33 write-ins.
In the race for United States senator a total of 5,313 total votes were cast, 3,522 on Election Day and 1,791 early ballots. Ben Sasse (R) took home a majority of the votes at 4,103 votes total. Chris Janicek (D) earned 677 votes, Gene Siadek (L) picked up 373 and there were 160 write-ins.
The District 3 Congressional representative candidate totals show Adrian Smith (R) with 4,337 votes, Mark Elworth Jr. (D) with 800, Dustin C. Hobbs (L) at 240, with seven write-ins.
With a contest total of 880 votes cast, District 3 Hamilton County Commissioner John Thomas earned 862 votes. There were 18 votes for write-in candidates.
For District 4 Hamilton County Commissioner, Nancy Salmon received 790 of the 798 total contest votes. There were eight write-ins.
In the vote to retain Judge Funke, 3,447 individuals voted yes, 714 voted no. In the vote to retain Judge Stine, there were 3,384 votes yes and 732 votes no. To retain Judge Block, 3,369 individuals voted yes, 711 voted no.
For the Central Community College Board of Governors (District 1) seat, Michelle Broekemier received the majority of votes, totaling 2,740. Incumbent Paul Krieger received 1,128 votes and there were 19 write-in votes. For the CCC Board of Governors (at large) seat, Sam Cowan earned 3,697 votes. There were also 24 write-in votes.
In the vote for the Central Platte NRD Subdistrict 10 seat, Barry Obermiller received 262 of the 263 total votes. The remaining vote was placed for a write-in candidate.
For the Upper Big Blue NRD Subdistrict 7 seat, Rodney Grotz received 3,382 total votes. There were also 17 write-in candidate votes counted. For the UBBNRD Subdistrict 8 seat, Paul Bethune received 3,337 votes out of a total of 3,355 cast. The remaining 18 votes were cast for write-in candidates.
In the vote for the Nebraska Public Power District representative, Wayne Williams edged out his opponents with a total of 2,219 total votes. Sheila Hubbard received 2,080 votes and there were also six write-in votes cast.
For the Southern Public Power District representative, Dean Klute received 1,823 total votes. The four remaining votes cast in the contest went to write-in candidates.
In the Perennial Public Power District, Subdistrict 1, race, Jeffrey Obermier received all 42 votes cast.
In the race for Educational Service Unit (ESU) 6, District 2, representative, Dale Kahla received all 71 votes cast. For the ESU 7, District 10, representative vote, Marni Danhauer received all 315 votes cast.
For ESU 9, District 2, Julie Jensen received 3,373 votes. There were also 14 write-in votes cast. For ESU 9, District 4, Kenneth Spray earned all 313 votes cast. For ESU 9, District 6, Rick Poppe received all 40 votes cast.

Area school boards
In the race for representatives on the Aurora School Board, where three seats were available, Daniel Pachta received 2,854 total votes. Fellow incumbent Scott Schuster earned 2,629 votes, while newcomer to the board Brock Wyatt earned 2,514. There were 68 total write-in votes cast.
In the Giltner School Board race, there were a total of 905 total votes cast. Broken down, with three seats up for grabs, this stood as 338 votes for Michael Wilson, 196 votes for Joseph Happold, 161 votes for Brad Schutt and 108 votes for Sierra Eastman. There were 102 write-in votes not assigned.
In the Hampton School Board race, where there were three seats up for election, Derek Klute earned 421 of the 826 total votes. Following close behind was Tamara Wiens with 297 total votes. Write-in candidate Megan Faller received 58 total votes, and 50 other write-in votes were not assigned.
With three seats available on the High Plains School Board, 510 total votes were cast. Of those, 139 votes went to Terry Carlstrom, 132 went to Erin Meyer and 87 were earned by Jason Morris. Kraig Urkoski picked up 77 votes and Kyle Beck earned 75 total.
For the Central City School Board race, on the ballot for only a small portion of Hamilton County voters, a total of 469 votes were cast. With three seats up for grabs, Brian Buhlke received 162 votes, Lisa Wagner received 156 votes and Brett Zikmund earned 146 votes. There were also five write-in votes cast.
In the Doniphan-Trumbull School Board race, with three seats open, Brent Rainforth received the most number of votes with 43 total. Coming in with the second highest vote total was Amanda Groff, who earned 38 votes. Finally, occupying the third available seat on the board will be Cristi Engel with 33 votes. Also running was Zachary Van Diest, who earned 22 total votes. There were no write-in votes cast.
For the Harvard School Board, also with three seats available, Janet Hachtel picked up 10 votes. Michael Nierman earned nine votes, while Michelle Callahan earned six, Andrew Burbach earned five, Cory Marshall earned two and Bonnie Roberts earned two.
For the three seats open on the Heartland School Board, 70 votes were given to Gary Braun, 68 votes were earned by Lacey Gloystein and Preston Switzer picked up 65 votes. Jen Hiebner earned 55 votes, Tyler Newton earned 43 votes and Mark Perez picked up 16 total to round out that election.
For the Sutton School Board, with three seats available, James Jones Jr. earned 19 total votes. Following close behind, Teryl Andersen earned 16 votes, Rick Reutzel picked up 12 votes and Brent Mau earned 11.

Aurora City Council
In the race for the Aurora City Council Ward 1 seat, Wayne Roblee earned a total of 783 votes. Write-in candidates picked up a combined 14 votes, for a combined total of 797 cast.
For Aurora City Council Ward 2, Nancy Lohrmeyer was retained with 582 total votes. There were seven write-in votes placed.
For the Aurora City Council Ward 3 seat, write-in candidate Mark Dunn picked up 141 votes. Other non-assigned write-in votes tallies at 52.
For the Aurora Airport Authority open seats (2), Mike Hawthorne earned 1,615 votes, while Brett Mitchell earned 1,561 total votes. There were also eight write-in votes cast.

Village boards
In the race for the three open seats on the Giltner Village Board, Thomas Lambert earned a spot with 154 total votes. Also on the ballot were write-in candidates Jimmie Smith with 65 votes, Dustin Antle with 39 votes, Jordan Grantham with 39 votes, Ryan Nuss with 15 votes, Alan Charlton with nine votes and Felicia Allen with two votes. There were also 70 unassigned write-in votes.
The Hampton Village Board saw two available positions available to fill on the ballot. Dylan Bamesberger earned 217 total votes, while Jared Rojewski picked up 226 total votes. There were 15 write-in votes.
For the Hordville Village Board, with three seats available, Marwin Rogers earned 52 total votes, Rod Blase earned 51 votes and Robert Anderson earned 50 votes. There were also three write-in votes cast.
For the Marquette Village Board, with two seats available, 69 total votes went to Dennis Saum, Catherine Archer earned 62 votes and 15 write-in votes were also cast.
In the race for the Phillips Village Board, Dwayne Bergmark earned 113 votes, while Marvin Ziola came in a close second with 104 total votes. Write-in candidates captured 16 votes. There were two positions open on the board during this election.
For the Village of Stockham Board, Lewis Schelkopf earned 19 votes. There were also six write-in votes placed, but not assigned.

Giltner Keno Lottery
In the matter of wether or not to allow keno lottery in Giltner, there were 187 votes for yes and 55 votes for no.
For “proposed Amendment No. 1” there were 2,772 votes for and 2,168 votes against. For “proposed Amendment No. 2” there were 2,575 votes in favor and 2,223 votes against. For “Initiative Measure 428” there were 3,953 votes for and 975 votes against. For “Initiative Measure 429” there were 2,875 votes for and 2,389 votes against. Finally, for “Initiative Measure 430” there were 2,890 votes for and 2,405 votes against. For “Initiative Measure 431” there were 3,097 votes for and 2,176 against.
“It was nice to see everyone get out and vote,” DeMers concluded. “We had great poll workers and  it was just an exciting day.”
Up next for DeMers and her election staff is the canvassing portion of the election, including balancing ballots, reports and everything else that goes with it. That process should be wrapped up within the week.