A Faribault County commissioner lost his bid for re-election, a former mayor’s write-in campaign failed and voters said “no” to Blue Earth Area’s (BEA) $66.845 million bond issue during the Nov. 5 general election on Tuesday.
Incumbent John Roper lost his District 1 commissioner’s seat to Gertrude Paschke on a 865 to 513 vote.
Roper, who is vice chairman of the County Board, has been a commissioner since being elected in 2009 to the four-year post.
Incumbent District 3 commissioner Bill Groskreutz was re-elected to another four-year term with 1,299 votes and incumbent District 5 commissioner Bruce Anderson also earned another term with 1,377 votes. Both ran unopposed.
In Winnebago races for City Council, former mayor Scott Robertson collected 61 write-in votes, but it wasn’t enough to win a seat on the council. According to the County Auditor’s Office, the votes he received were for mayor.
Incumbents Chris Anderson and Tony O’Donnell were elected to four-year term council seats with 378 and 259 votes, respectively. Jane Sybrandt was third with 196 votes and there were a total of 107 write-in votes.
Jean Anderson, who was appointed in February to fill the mayor’s seat, ran unopposed and was elected to serve two years with 479 votes. There were 99 write-in votes.
BEA School District voters overwhelmingly defeated a $66.845 million referendum to build a new elementary school and make improvements at the high school with 2,605 voting “no” and 1,655 voting in favor.
With four candidates were vying for three spots on the School Board, incumbents Ted Armon and Lindsay Mensing were re-elected to serve another four years. Armon finished with 2,317 votes and Mensing with 2,215.
Gary Armon won a seat on the board with 2,162 votes, while incumbent Jeff Eckles tallied 1,972 votes.
Incumbent Blue Earth Mayor Rick Scholtes ran unopposed and was re-elected to a two-year term with 1,382 votes. There were 125 write-in votes.
All three incumbents won re-election and will serve four more years.
Michael McNerney received 1,240 votes, while Stephanie Walter had 896 votes; John Huisman, 806; and Lawrence Berg, 669. There were 71 write-in votes.