Weiss, Kiepke win in Davison

Talk about it

More...

• More election coverage
• Unofficial results of all the issues on Mitchell voters' ballots

Davison County incumbents Susan Kiepke and Gerald Weiss retained their posts Tuesday with strong voter support.

Kiepke, the Republican county auditor, beat independent challenger Val Anderson. Kiepke received 4,513 votes, or 64 percent, compared to Anderson’s 2,485 votes, or 36 percent of the vote.

“I really appreciate the support voters have given me over the past four years,” she said, “and I’ll continue to work for, and with, the taxpayers of Davison County.”

Kiepke said she was surprised at her margin of victory.

Anderson, she said, ran an effective campaign. “She worked really hard,” Kiepke said.

Anderson acknowledged Kiepke’s mounting lead shortly before the polls closed but called her campaign a positive experience.

“I definitely want to thank all my supporters,” she said. “I think it was a good race, and I met a lot of wonderful people. Competition is an opportunity for everybody to improve, and I offered the people a choice. It was a good race.”

Weiss, the Democratic District 3 commissioner, defeated Republican challenger Lindell Howard.

Weiss received 920 votes, or about 60 percent of the vote, and Howard received 608 votes, or 40 percent of the votes cast.

Weiss has served one term on the commission since winning election in 2006. Tuesday night, he said he was a “lucky man to be a winning Democrat,” given the Republican gains across the nation.

He thanked his competitor for running a clean and honorable race.

“I’ll work my heart out for the taxpayers of Davison County,” Weiss pledged.

Weiss’ District 3 includes the south half of Mitchell Township and Precinct 16 in the southwest part of the city of Mitchell, plus Blendon, Mount Vernon, Beulah, Union, Lisbon, Prosper, Baker, Tobin and Rome townships, and the cities of Mount Vernon and Ethan.

Howard said he got a late start in his race against Weiss.

“I want to thank all those who stood behind me,” Howard said, “and I would like to congratulate Gerald and I wish him success in his next term of office. I enjoyed the race, but I started late and I probably didn’t have enough time to cover the territory like I should have.”

The polls closed at 7 p.m. but the 1,839 absentee ballots cast greatly slowed the count.

Kiepke, because of her candidacy, was relegated to the role of onlooker during the ballot counting process at the courthouse.

Voter turnout was strong in Davison County.

Auditor Kiepke said that 7,347 of 12,604 registered voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s race, for a 58 percent voter turnout.

She served refreshment to poll workers while her staff gathered and counted ballots. “They did a great job,” she said.

Precinct 20 absentee ballots were finalized around 11:25 p.m.

Kiepke credited good weather as much as high voter interest with the strong turnout.

Corn Palace manager Mark Schilling said, “Voter traffic was steady most all day,” with voting heaviest before 8 a.m. and after 5 p.m. and over the noon hour.

Tags: davison county, election 2010, news, local, politics