Your Election 2019 questions answered

Posted: Wed, Nov 6, 2019 3:25 PM

(Bob texts: "I didn't see the election totals for the third Decorah School Board seat up for election):

--That's because--as of late afternoon Tuesday--there weren't any election results. To recap, Decorah School Board Vice President Ben Lange, the Decorah School Board's member representing former North Winneshiek School District residents, announced before the election that he would not file nomination papers for a spot on the ballot because the requirements for getting on the ballot are too demanding for someone holding a volunteer position. He announced that he would ask for write-in votes, however.

Winneshiek County's ballot counting machine is not set up to count write-in votes, however. That means the ballots (in this case, 109 of them) have to be counted by hand and that process was not finished as of late Wednesday afternoon.

Robert asks, "Any updates on South Winn elections?"

--Not just on the South Winneshiek School Board election, but the Turkey Valley School Board election.

In South Winneshiek, the two at-large seats were won by Corey Meyer, with 586 votes, and Ron Hemesath, with 560 votes, while the District 2 seat was won by Donald Schroeder.

In Turkey Valley results only from Winneshiek County, Leon Shatek, Ernest Schmitt and Jolene Steinlage won election.

In the NICC District #3, Decorah resident Jim Anderson easily won re-election, getting 1,559 votes in just Winneshiek County.

Gary asks, "What was the Winneshiek Bond referendum for and why was it not on the rural ballet?"

--There was no "Winneshiek Bond Referendum." We're guessing that you're thinking of the Howard Winneshiek Bond Referendum, which asked voters in the Howard Winneshiek School District whether they supported borrowing $23.6 million to fund new school construction in the district. The measure was rejected by a 73 percent to 27 percent margin