The Nov. 5 election was a bit different for voters in Iowa this year. Traditionally school board elections across the state are held in September with the city, county, and state elections being held in November. This year, the elections were combined into one.
Though final numbers will need to be reviewed before a complete analysis can be made, Muscatine voting numbers were up over previous elections. The school board elections in 2015 and 2017 each recorded approximately 6% of registered voters. Muscatine County Auditor Leslie Soule reports voting numbers for the combined election at 16.9%.
“We feel it was a success,” Soule said. “Our precincts all reported that the day went well. Several of our precincts report steady streams of voters all throughout the day.”
Though preliminary numbers are in, there is more that must be done before the lists can be finalized. According to Soule, all absentee ballots with postdates on or before Nov. 4 will be counted and added to the final numbers.
For the races that cross county lines, the auditor’s office will be working alongside auditor’s offices from the corresponding counties. Each cross-county race will have one county that is the control county, and all results are presented to that auditor’s office. These races include races in West Liberty, L-M, Durant, and Blue Grass.
Muscatine County is the control county for the L-M school board race.
For the Muscatine City Council, Mayor Diana Broderson will retain her seat, and will be joined by several new council members, Dennis Froelich in the 1st ward; Peggy Gordon in the 3rd ward; John Jindrich in the 5th ward and former mayor DeWayne Hopkins in the at-large seat.
The Muscatine School Board will have Dennis Schuur, Mike Morgan and Karen Cooney joining incumbent John Dabeet in the upcoming term.
Finalized results of all county races can be found on the Muscatine auditor’s website.