(Editor’s Note –All results are preliminary and will be audited by Linn County this week).

“Mount Vernon turned out to vote,” said Mary Young, poll worker at Mount Vernon 2.

Indeed, Mount Vernon did, with both Mount Vernon 1 and 2 having more than 30 percent overall turnout.

In the last city election, Mount Vernon had 1034 of the 3388 registered voters come out and vote, for 30.52 percent.

This year, the combined Mount Vernon 1 and 2 had 1,141 of 3,397 registered voters for a 33.58 percent turnout.

The record turnout in past elections, according to Linn County Auditor’s office, was the election of 1991, which had 43.66 percent turnout. Average election turnout over the past 20 years has been 22.52 percent.

Mount Vernon 1

Mount Vernon 1 saw steady traffic throughout the day, poll workers reported at 8 p.m. as they were closing for the day.

“We’re used to seeing roughly 20 percent turnout, and this year we’re closer to 36 percent,” said Ed Timm, one of the poll workers at the location. “That’s a big deal.”

Indeed, the steady turnout kept many of the workers away from things like books and leisure activities they brought with them if there was any downtime, as up until 7:45 p.m.there was always someone checking in to vote or voting at the precinct.

Mount Vernon 1 had a final voter turnout of 35.5 percent, with 578 ballots cast and 1,629 registered voters in the precinct.

Mount Vernon 1 had 472 votes for current mayor Tom Wieseler and 104 votes for Keith Huebner in the mayoral election. Paul Tuerler had 429 votes and Sherene Player had 419 votes for city council.

Rick Elliott had 450 votes, Tim Keegan had 386 votes and there were 385 write-in votes for the school board election in Mount Vernon 1.

Keith Stamp had 409 votes total for Kirkwood Merged District.

Mount Vernon 2

Mount Vernon 2 had a voter turnout of 32.68 percent, with 563 ballots from 1,768 registered voters.

The story in Mount Vernon 2 that Leah Houtman wanted to note – 67 first time registering to vote in the election.

“We had so many that we ran out of first-time registration forms,” Houtman said. “That required an hour wait for more of those to arrive.”

Houtman wanted people to know many of those first-time voters were Cornell College students and they were calm, kind and respectful, even when facing an hour to wait to vote in the election, and wanted to vote in this election.

Young said that having 30 percent turnout is exciting for the poll workers at Mount Vernon 2 as well, noting that it kept them busy throughout the day.

Houtman agreed, noting that in races like primaries, you can sit for hours with no voters coming in. That wasn’t the case at Mount Vernon City Hall Tuesday.

For the mayoral race, Mount Vernon 2 had 477 votes for Wieseler and 80 for Huebner. City council races had 405 for Player and 388 for Tuerler. There were 387 for Elliott, 378 for Keegan and 376 in write-in totals for the Mount Vernon School Board election. Stamp got 384 for the Kirkwood Merged District.

Absentee

Absentee ballots had 72 votes for Wieseler and 12 for Huebner for mayor. Player picked up 69 ballots and Tuerler 60 in Mount Vernon city council.

Keegan had 85, Elliott had 95 and 68 write-ins were picked up for Mount Vernon School Board.

Robyn Richey had 19 and Travis Bagby had 18 for Lisbon School Board. Smith had 16, Scott 18 and 8 write-ins for Lisbon City Council.

Franklin Township

Franklin Township (which includes Lisbon), had no contested races this year. They had roughly 12.58 percent turnout, with 266 ballots cast and 2,114 registered voters.

Nathan Ron Smith had 142 votes for city council, Ricky Scott had 125 votes and there were 107 write ins.

Travis Bagby had 161 votes for Lisbon School Board and Robyn Richey had 166.

Keith Stamp picked up 207 votes for Kirkwood Merged District.

For Mount Vernon School Board, Tim Keegan had 49, Rick Elliott 43 and 46 write-ins total.

Write-ins

On Wednesday, Nov. 5, Linn County released a breakdown of the write-in counts for Linn County races. School board races cover a number of counties, so final numbers may end up higher for each candidate.

For Mount Vernon School Board, Maggie Hartzler had the most votes with 414, followed by Mehrdad Zarifkar with 307 and Kara Stineman with 154. Michael Brannaman, a late entry in the write-in race, garnered 19 total votes.

In Lisbon, Rawley Alger had 69 total write in votes, with Christopher Funk picking up 16.

Bertram

Bertram had a 17.01 percent turnout, with 343 ballots cast compared to 2,017 registered voters.

For city council, Laura Merchan had 50 votes and Stephanie Vislisel had 53 votes.