March 28, 2024

Friday wins contested supervisors race

This season, Union County saw two contested county races with candidates vying for positions on the board of trustees at Greater Regional Health and to fill a vacancy on the Union County Board of Supervisors.

With 3,283 votes, Rick Friday pulled ahead of Dale Cline, who received 1,480 in the race to fill a vacancy on the Union County Board of Supervisors. Cline was appointed to the position in May 2017 after the death of then supervisor Lois Monday.

Greater Regional Health Board of Trustees maintains its current board after the unofficial election results show Jack Davis, David Driskell and Kenneth Stults having received 2,120, 2,279 and 2,735 votes respectively at the close of the polls, compared to Tiffany Gale (1,780) and Ashley Simmons (1,800).

Running uncontested, Supervisor Ron Riley, whose term was set to expire, was re-elected to the county board with 3,936 votes compared to 44 write-ins.

Other unofficial winners of uncontested county races include County Treasurer Kelly Busch (4,169), County Recorder Katie Carlton (4,061), County Attorney Timothy Kenyon (3,788). Soil and Water Conservation district commissioner candidates James Allen (2,655) and Dan Ide (3,584) are slated to fill the two open positions. With five open positions on the agriculture extension council, candidates Larry Bailey (2,923), Jennifer Foglesong (2,577), Shiloh Gennaro (2,152) and Jerry Hartman (2,526) are expected to fill the roles. Additionally, the following judges will be retained: Michael R. Mullin, Mary Ellen Tabor, Anuradha Vaitheswaran and Patrick W. Greenwood.

U.S. Representatives District 3

Union County voters overwhelmingly supported incumbent Representative David Young this election with 2,925 votes compared to Cindy Axne, a Democratic businesswoman, who pulled 1,706 of the county’s votes. However, Axne defeated Young to serve this district that includes Des Moines, its suburbs and conservative small towns near the Missouri River.

Voter turnout is typically lower for midterm elections, but Union County saw a slight increase from 52.3 percent of registered voters in 2014 to 59.8 percent yesterday.

Of the 4,905 ballots cast across nine precincts in Union County, 2,293 were absentee, which was up 4.03 percent this year from 2014.

Sandy Hysell, Union County auditor who reported these results, said, aside from the nine precincts who reported last night, votes will remain unofficial until a special precinct consisting of postmarked ballots and provisional ballots at polling places are received.