LIVE Park County election results

Posted 11/4/14

The updated results -- which include at least 2,500 more ballots -- put some more space between challenger Tim Sapp and incumbent Powell City Councilman Myron Heny. Sapp now leads by 18 votes (227-209) rather than just six. I'm not sure if there …

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LIVE Park County election results

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UPDATE - 1:07 p.m. Wednesday: Park County elections staff realized today that they forgot to include absentee ballots in the unofficial results reported online and to the Secretary of State's Office last night. At least one result -- a Cody school board race -- changed as a result of the error; generally, it's only the vote totals that are changing.

The updated results -- which include at least 2,500 more ballots -- put some more space between challenger Tim Sapp and incumbent Powell City Councilman Myron Heny. Sapp now leads by 18 votes (227-209) rather than just six. I'm not sure if there will be further updates or not; the clerk's office is working on it.

The main change is that Park County's turnout apparently wasn't the miserable showing it first looked. The updated results indicate that around 62.2 percent of the local registered voters cast ballots -- which is way better than the 46 percent that the initial reports had indicated.

The clerk's office has updated results online. We'll have complete coverage on all this in tomorrow's newspaper.

Tuesday - 9:35 p.m. With 100 percent of the vote in, here's what we know:

* Turnout was apparently pretty lackluster. The unofficial results say that only 7,182 voters showed up at the polls. That's nearly 550 fewer voters than in August's primary election and it's only 46 percent of registered voters. When you look at the number of adults who were eligible to vote, that percentage drops to a pretty low number. WEDNESDAY UPDATE: Actually, it was bad, but not *that* bad. With the absentee ballots added in, the turnout was around 62.2 percent.

* It looks like Powell has a new city councilman, Tim Sapp, just barely. He appears to have edged Myron Heny in Ward III by six votes (165-159). Sorry for the bad seven-vote math earlier. What a strange race, given that it began only in the primary election when Sapp got the three write-in votes needed to make the general election ballot...

* Northwest College Trustee Carolyn Danko has earned another term on the board with 1,601 votes and she'll be joined by Dusty Spomer (who got 1,602 votes). Martin Garhart will again miss out on the board after receiving 867 votes in the three-way race for two Powell area seats.

* Park County likes its judges just fine. Around 69 percent of voters chose to retain District Court Judge Steven Cranfill and more than 78 percent voted in favor of Circuit Court Judge Bruce Waters.

*Park County likes Republicans. In the contested statewide races, the county went heavily for U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, Gov. Matt Mead, Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate Jillian Balow and Secretary of State candidate Ed Murray. They all received at least 65 percent of the vote.

* Eastern Park County folks prefer their current representative, Republican Elaine Harvey of Lovell, to Constitution Party challenger Joyce Collins, also of Lovell. A total of 64 of the 97 voters who live in House District 26 (66 percent), chose Harvey over Collins. It looks like a similar story over in Big Horn County, meaning Harvey is headed back to the state house.

* Locals like having locals on the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees. Close to 72 percent of county voters said no to the idea of allowing out-of-staters serve on the board. It looks like residents across the state felt the same way.

* In a bit of election trivia, Cody area voters said no thanks to a couple of Park County government staffers who were seeking elected office. Park County Public Health Nurse Manager Bill Crampton drew the short straw in a five-way race for four seats on the West Park Hospital Board of Trustees, as did Deputy Park County Attorney William Struemke in a four-way race for three positions on the Cody school board. WEDNESDAY UPDATE: After the 2,510 absentee ballots were counted, Struemke actually edged out the candidate who had been in third place, Sean Dimsey, so he should join the Cody school board next year. Also, I've corrected the number of available seats/candidates.

I think that will do it for our coverage tonight. Thanks for everyone who dropped by! We'll have more complete coverage in Thursday's newspaper.

8:52 p.m. With all of Park County precincts reporting, the unofficial results show challenger Tim Sapp indeed defeating incumbent Powell City Councilman Myron Heny by just six votes: 165 to 159.

In the other locally contested race, incumbent Carolyn Danko and newcomer Dusty Spomer won two available Powell area seats on the Northwest College Board of Trustees, each pulling around 1,600 ballots. Martin Garhart came up short with 867 votes.

8:45 p.m. Still no results from the Elaine Harvey-Joyce Collins race. All the other races are looking about the same as they did in early returns.

Here's a rundown of some key races:

Northwest College Board of Trustees

Dusty Spomer - 1,602 votes, 39.2%

Carolyn Danko - 1,601 votes, 39.2%

Martin Garhart - 867 votes, 21.2%

District Court Judge Steven Cranfill retention*

4,372 votes, 68.7% yes

1,988 votes, 31.2% votes no

Circuit Court Judge Bruce Waters retention*

Yes - 4,864 votes, 78.2%

No - 1,353 votes, 21.8%

Powell City Council Ward III

Tim Sapp - 165 votes, 50.8%

Myron Heny - 159 votes, 48.9%

Governor

Matt Mead (R) - 4,544 votes, 54.9%

Peter Gosar (D) - 1,121 votes, 16%

Don Wills (I) - 711 votes, 10.2%

Dee Cozzens (L) - 279 votes, 3.9%

State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Jillian Balow (R) - 5,124 votes, 75.5%

Mike Ceballos (D) - 1,622 votes, 23.9%

8:41 p.m. Now we're getting some real Powell results and it looks like a real dogfight between incumbent Ward III councilman Myron Heny and challenger Tim Sapp.

With 24 of 29 precincts reporting, Sapp has 165 votes (50.8%) and Heny 159 (48.9%). I'm not sure if we're still waiting on votes there or not.

8:15 p.m. We've now got results for 14 of 29 precincts, so there's still a decent amount of votes still out there.

There's still no indication who will win the Ward III Powell City Council race between incumbent Myron Heny and challenger Tim Sapp. Also, no results in the House District 26 race between Elaine Harvey and Joyce Collins, though most of the voters live in Big Horn County.

Here's some things we do know:

Park County voters are satisfied with District Court Judge Steven Cranfill (73.5% of voters say keep him, so far) and Circuit Court Judge Bruce Waters (81.1% favor retention).

It looks like incumbent Carolyn Danko (42.4%/92 votes so far) and newcomer Dusty Spomer (76 votes, 35%) will go to the Northwest College Board of Trustees from the Powell area while Martin Garhart (48 votes/22.1%) will miss out.

Park County voters are big fans of U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi (81% of the vote), U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis (76%), Governor Matt Mead (66.7%), Secretary of State contender Ed Murray (81%) and Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate Jillian Balow (75.4%). They're all Republicans who had opponents.

8:01 p.m. Worth mentioning that Park County residents appear uninterested in seeing out of staters on the University of Wyoming's Board of Trustees. So far, 1,396 votes (67.5%) are opposed, with just 672 votes (32.5%) in favor.

7:59 p.m. Here are some updated results, with 8 of 29 precincts counted. Oddly, it appears the absentee numbers have perhaps been temporarily removed from these totals, as some have actually dropped (the Powell City Council race now shows zero votes...). I'll sort that out a bit later.

Northwest College Board of Trustees

Carolyn Danko - 92 votes, 42.4%

Dusty Spomer - 76 votes, 35%

Martin Garhart - 48 votes, 22.1%

District Court Judge Steven Cranfill retention*

1,480 votes yes

491 votes no

Circuit Court Judge Bruce Waters retention*

1,589 votes yes

359 votes no

Powell City Council Ward III

Tim Sapp - 0 votes

Myron Heny - 0 votes

Governor

Matt Mead (R) - 1,440 votes, 66.9%

Peter Gosar (D) - 369 votes, 17.1%

Don Wills (I) - 197 votes, 9.2%

Dee Cozzens (L) - 67 votes, 3.1%

State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Jillian Balow (R) - 1,543 votes, 74%

Mike Ceballos (D) - 533 votes, 25.6%

*Will be combined with other Big Horn, Washakie and Hot Springs County results

7:47 p.m.  The local Republicans who are partying are Brewgard's in Cody must be liking what they're seeing from Park County initial returns: the GOP candidates cleaned up in the absentee ballots that have been counted so far.

Governor

Matt Mead (R) - 886 votes, 65%

Peter Gosar (D) - 226 votes, 16.6%

Don Wills (I) - 177 votes, 13%

Dee Cozzens (L) - 45 votes, 3.3%

State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Jillian Balow (R) - 949 votes, 73.3%

Mike Ceballos (D) - 335 votes, 25.9%

Another pair of Republicans, U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis (73.6%) and U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi (78%), are looking even better.

7:40 p.m. Well, it looks like Park County has counted at least some of its absentee ballots. Here are the results from the absentees, as uploaded to the county website in a file time-stamped 6:59 p.m:

It looks good for Carolyn Danko and Dusty Spomer staying on and joining the Northwest College board of trustees, respectively. They're well ahead of Martin Garhart, the third contender for the two open Powell area seats, and it would take a dramatic turnaround for him to make the board at this point.

Also, it appears District Court Judge Steven Cranfill and Circuit Court Judge Bruce Waters are extremely safe in their seats.

We know next-to-nothing about the Myron Heny-Tim Sapp race for the Powell City Council, as only 12 votes have been counted in the Ward III race (for what it's worth, Sapp has 8 of those 12 initial votes). More in a minute.

Northwest College Board of Trustees

Carolyn Danko - 266 votes

Dusty Spomer - 234 votes

Martin Garhart - 145 votes

District Court Judge Steven Cranfill retention

881 yes

362 no

Circuit Court Judge Bruce Waters retention

910 yes

269 no

Powell City Council Ward III

Tim Sapp - 8 votes

Myron Heny - 4 votes

7 p.m. The polls are now closed in Park County and now it's time for the Park County Clerk's Office to begin getting all the ballots to the Park County Courthouse, where they'll be tabulated and posted online at http://www.parkcounty.us/PCElections/2014generalresults.html.

The Tribune will be re-posting those results here in this space. They may start becoming available as early as 7:30 or 7:45 p.m.; that's roughly when results started becoming available during the primary election.

To be honest, most of the really exciting and hotly contested local races were in the Republican primary (like a no-holds-barred race for sheriff's), but there are still some big questions that will be answered by tonight's election:

1. Who takes the Ward III Powell City Council race between incumbent Myron Heny and former councilman Tim Sapp? It's a re-match of the 2010 race (where Heny won the seat with about 56.7 percent of the vote) that began when Sapp received a few write-in votes in the primary election.

2. Who will join the Northwest College Board of Trustees? Incumbent Carolyn Danko and newcomers Martin Garhart and Dusty Spomer are all running for two seats on the board that represent the Powell area.

3. Will the Big Horn Basin retain Park County's Circuit and District Court judges? Circuit Judge Bruce Waters and District Court Judge Steven Cranfill are both asking voters to keep them in their current positions. A handful of online commenters and letter-writers -- most notably Sheriff Scott Steward in January 2013 -- have targeted Cranfill's sentencing as too lenient, but there certainly hasn't been any large-scale opposition to the retention of either judge. Lawyers who've appeared before the two judges in recent years have overwhelmingly recommended that voters keep the jurists on their benches. One thing to keep in mind is that it's not just up to Park County voters, where Cranfill and Waters hear most of their cases. It's actually up to voters across the entire Fifth Judicial District -- Park, Big Horn, Washakie and Hot Springs counties.

4. How will the House District 26 race between incumbent Republican Elaine Harvey and Constitution Party challenger Joyce Collins? The seat being sought by the two Lovell women mostly represents northern Big Horn County, but also serves the eastern edge of Park County, including Garland.

There's also plenty of things to check out, like, what do Park County voters think of allowing out-of-state residents to serve on the University of Wyoming's Board of Trustees? Who do they like for governor and superintendent of public instruction? How much do they like U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming? We'll also get a pretty good idea of today's voter turnout.

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