Photo: Samsmachado / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Voters across Wright County settled city council and school board races in the November 2023 city-school election. Here are the unofficial totals as reported after the canvass.
Clarion
In the Clarion City Council race, where voters could pick two, Michael Ennis led with 326 votes and Shayne Hennigar took the second seat with 184. Larry Harrah finished with 158, and there were 29 write-ins.
Clarion-Goldfield-Dows school board
Craig Warneke won the District 1 seat with 406 votes over Joseph Corrow (116) and Cindy Dorn (102). Troy Seaba ran unopposed in District 2 and received 559 votes.
Belmond-Klemme schools
Belmond-Klemme voters approved extending the district’s PPEL levy, 227 to 43. Ryan Meyer won District 1 with 289 votes and Jim Swenson took District 3 with 268. Michelle Murphy won the at-large seat, 182 to 105 over Marc Schlichting. The District 2 and District 5 seats drew only write-in votes, 91 and 109 respectively, so those winners were determined after the count.
Belmond
Frank Beminio was elected mayor with 202 votes. Alan Mattison won the two-year council seat with 217. Kyle Tulp (199) and Jamie Duran (172) won the two four-year council seats. For hospital board, Nancy Gabrielson (208) and Brad Robson (206) won seats, with the third seat going to a write-in. Sandy Steenblock received 210 votes for park board.
Rowan
Linnea Groom received 17 votes for mayor. Heather Baumgartner (27) and Mark Bruns (19) won the two council seats.
Turnout in city-school elections tends to be low, and several of these races were decided by a few dozen votes.
Jill Ostrander writes for Clarion News Online.