Perry-area voters went to the polls Tuesday to elect mayors, city council members and school board directors, with 13.82 percent of registered voters turning out countywide and 16.72 statewide to exercise their electoral rights.
In Perry, four incumbent officeholders ran unopposed, with Mayor John Andorf and Perry City Council members Dean Berkland, Chuck Schott and Barb Wolling winning their races handily.
Three seats on the Perry Community School District Board of Directors were on the ballot, with write-in candidates garnering 393 votes in the district’s Dallas County precincts and incumbent directors Linda Andorf receiving 367 votes, Kenia Alarcon earning 324 votes and Jim Lutmer netting 317 votes.
In the two Boone County precincts of the PCSD, 62 votes were cast, including 20 votes write-ins, 13 for Lutmer, 14 for Andorf and 15 for Alarcon. Five votes were cast in the single Greene County precinct, two write-ins and one for each of the three candidates on the ballot.
Election officials will convene a meeting Wednesday at the office of the Dallas County Commissioner of Elections in order to tally write-in votes for all county races.
Supplementing the civic duties were soups served by the Perry Kiwanis Club in their annual election day chili feed. Panora-based Tori’s Angels was the Kiwanis Club’s chosen recipient for funds raised at this election’s chili feed.
Mary Jane Sprague and Terry Sprague of Panora were on hand to greet voters and tell them about the good works of Tori’s Angels, named in honor or Tori Heckman of Panora. The group helps the families of children with medical needs to fill in the gaps for needs that insurance does not provide, such as transportation, some medications and adaptive equipment.
Among the local angels in Tori’s Angels are Perry High School freshman Noriel Riesberg, whose lockermate Holden Smith said Noriel is doing well and playing basketball this year, and Leo Van Gundy of Des Moines, the son of Kristin Ballard and Travis Van Gundy and grandson of Pam Ballard and Deb Van Gundy.
In other area election races, 27 write-in votes were cast for the office of Bouton mayor, which no candidates filed for in time to get on the ballot.
In the race for Dawson mayor, unofficial results show Maris Masingill with 22 votes and Colton Morman with eight votes.
Woodward Mayor Todd Folkerts was reelected with 90 percent of the 127 votes cast, according to unofficial figures. In the race for the two Woodward City Council vacancies, Jared C. Stone garnered 108 votes, incumbent council member Kelly Kirts earned 94 and Matt Cavanaugh got 60. Five write-in votes were cast.
In Dallas Center, voters returned three incumbents to the city council: Danny Beyer, Ryan Coon and Ryan Kluss.
ThePerryNews.com will update this story as information becomes available and vote totals become official.
