Absentee voting fuels significantly higher voter turnout for June 2 Primary Election

Kelleher and Reiser win party nominations for Board of Supervisors, other races mirror broader results

The Tuesday, June 2 Primary Election yielded one of the best voter turn-outs for Allamakee County in recent history, actually about double the percentage of registered voters as in more recent best turn-outs with 35.41% of the county’s registered voters casting a ballot this year. Of those 2,377 votes cast in this year’s Primary Election, a vast majority of those - 2,063 votes - came in the form of absentee ballots, a process encouraged by Allamakee County Commissioner of Elections Denise Beyer and Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate for this election due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The turnout for the Primary Election was higher than we typically see,” shared Beyer. “I believe most of this can be attributed to the Secretary of State mailing an Absentee Ballot Request to every registered voter in the state, to promote absentee voting during the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic. I think for some people this is the first time they participated in a Primary Election, which is great. The many questions we received from voters about why they had to request a party is what makes me think there were several first-time Primary voters. I think this was a great election education opportunity and hopefully will increase turnout in future Primary Elections.”

In addition to the increase in absentee voting to avoid in-person contact as much as possible, another significant change warranted by the COVID-19 pandemic was the reduction in voting precincts for this year’s Primary Election. The county’s usual 11 polling sites were combined into just three for the June 2 Primary. Although voter turnout for this year’s Primary was considerably higher, the in-person voting turnout at any of those three precincts ranged from just 86 voters to as many as 137 voters, as absentee ballots dominated this year’s election process.

“With the special circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic, you can tell by the numbers provided that most people heeded the request from the Secretary of State office and their County Auditors and voted absentee,” Beyer explained. “Those who were comfortable with voting at the polls took advantage of that opportunity as well.

Thank you to the poll workers who were willing to put themselves out their during the pandemic, which allowed us to have three locations available for voting in Allamakee County. Overall, the Primary election was a success due to much collaboration between the Secretary of State Office and the state’s 99 County Auditors.”

ELECTION RESULTS
Voting results in Allamakee County proved to be a fairly close reflection of the broader districtwide or statewide results in races on this year’s ballots. Not much more than single percentage point separated the local results from each candidate’s broader results in most all of this year’s races.

Within the most local contested races, both the Democrat and Republican parties had a battle for nominations for one Allamakee County Board of Supervisors seat coming up for election in November of this year. The two nominees from their respective parties will now square off in that November General Election for the seat currently held by Dennis Koenig of Postville, who opted not to seek re-election this year after his second term on the board.

On the Democratic ballot, Andy Kelleher of New Albin garnered 65.5% (614) of the votes cast to win his party’s nomination over Jack Knight of rural Luana and his 32.5% (305 votes). The Republican nomination was won by Mark Reiser of rural Lansing with 59.5% (815) of that vote total, defeating Mike Monroe of rural Postville, who received 40.3% of the votes (552).

Additional Allamakee County offices up for election this year and listed on Tuesday’s Primary ballot featured those of Auditor and Sheriff, with neither incumbent facing any Primary challenge for a second consecutive term. Auditor Denise Beyer tallied 1,307 votes (99.8%) in her bid for retaining the Republican nomination, with Sheriff Clark Mellick garnering 1,325 votes (99.5%) to do likewise. Neither of those other two County offices on this year’s Primary ballot had any Democrat officially declared as a candidate.

FEDERAL RACES
The only other contested races on this year’s Primary ballots for Allamakee County voters were within the Federal level of government. Two different offices had a single contested race, with those races being on opposite ballots.

In the U.S. Senate race, incumbent Republican Joni Ernst had no opposition within her own party, but the Democratic ballot had four candidates vying for that nomination and the opportunity to challenge Ernst in November. Winning that Democratic nomination was Theresa Greenfield over Michael Franken, Kimberly Graham and Eddie Mauro, with Cal Woods also being listed on this year’s ballot but having withdrawn from the race - and still ending up with about one percent of the votes cast at both the local and statewide level.

In Allamakee County, Greenfield won 49.4% of the vote (471 votes) in comparison to Franken’s 25.9% (247 votes), Graham’s 15.4% (147 votes) and Mauro’s 8.6% (82 votes). The percentages for each candidate remained close to those same levels in the election’s statewide results, with Greenfield winning the nomination with 47.7% of the vote, Franken finishing with 24.9%, and Graham and Mauro closing out the ranks with 14.9% and 10.9% of the votes, respectively.

The two parties flip-flopped that scenario in the District 1 seat of the U.S. House of Representatives, as it was Democratic incumbent Abby Finkenauer who was running unopposed for her party’s nomination, with two candidates on the Republican ballot vying for the opportunity to take on Finkenauer in this November’s General Election.

Ashley Hinson of Marion won that Republican nomination with an overall statewide garnering of 77.8% of the vote in comparison to the 21.9% of the vote managed by Thomas Hansen of Decorah. Hansen had a bit better following among Allamakee County voters, managing 27.9% (372 votes) but still coming up short of Hinson’s winning bid, as she received 71.9% (957) of the votes cast in Allamakee County.

UNCONTESTED AT STATE LEVEL
The two State of Iowa races on this year’s ballots each featured no competition for their respective parties’ nominations. All unopposed candidates running for those nominations received nearly 100% of their party’s vote.

Mike Klimesh of Spillville is now the Republican nominee for District 28 of the Iowa Senate, and he will be matched up this November against Matt Tapscott of Decorah, who won the Democratic nomination. Both will be vying for that seat being vacated by current Senator Michael Breitbach, who opted not to seek re-election to that Senate seat this year.

Anne Osmundson of Volga also ran unopposed as the incumbent candidate for District 56 of the Iowa House of Representatives, winning the Republican nomination once again. Osmundson will be challenged in this November’s General Election by Angela Reed of Guttenberg, who ran unopposed to secure the Democratic nomination.