Lake County voters follow state, national trends

State and national races were a similar story, in what was a breakout year for the G.O.P.

“I’m pleased with it,” Ron Tjaden, chairman of the Lake County Republican Central Committee said. “We have big challenges coming up. We have to be conservative.”

Aside from the

reelection of Gov. Steve Bullock, the Democrats had few to cheer about at both home and across the country.

“I think a lot of our candidates got swept away in the national focus,” said Craig McClure, chairman of the Lake County Democratic Central Committee. “This was certainly a good effort. I don’t think we have anything to regret in that sense.”

Conservative-minded voting carried over to local ballot measures as well.

A public safety mill levy for Ronan was defeated by a slim margin of four votes, with 311 for and 315 against. The proposal would have raised taxes to support the hiring of an additional police officer for the city.

Ronan Police Chief Ken Weaver said last week that the city would look into requesting a recount after initial numbers showed only two votes barring the passage of the measure. But as provisional ballots were finalized on Monday, the margin grew to four, exceeding the one-quarter of one percent disparity required to request a recount.

The city now faces the threat of loosing a federal police officer hiring grant if they cannot come up with $124,311 in matching funds.

A $5.6 million bond for the St. Ignatius School District also failed. Voters turned down the measure, which would have provided money for renovations to aging facilities, 55 to 45 percent.

A handful of voters said yes, however, to permanently increasing the mill levy for the Preston-Hot Springs Library District, with a total of 23 votes supporting the measure by 60 to 40 percent.

Overall voter turnout was wrong across the county. Out of 18,800 registered voters, 13,446 ballots were cast for 71.5-percent showing. But with about 4,000 registered voters listed as inactive, county Election Administrator Kathie Newgard said actual turnout was in reality even higher.

“That’s huge,” she said.

Voters are listed inactive if they did not vote in the previous federal general election.

The scene at Lake County Courthouse as polls closed on Nov. 8 reflected this election fever. A line of voters waiting to register snaked out of the building as clocks neared 8 p.m. Officials with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office assured citizens that as long as they entered the line before the deadline they would be allowed to cast a ballot.

Newgard said the sheriff’s office was extremely helpful, along with the rest of the election office staff.

“There’s so many people I’d like to thank,” she said.