CRAWFORD COUNTY - The election held Tuesday, April 7 turned out to have a lot more impact locally than it did nationally.
In an update provided by Crawford County Clerk Janet Geisler on Thursday, April 16, it was revealed that:
Total votes cast in Crawford County: 4,260
Turnout for Crawford County: 50.2 percent
Voting by Absentee in Crawford County: 57.3 percent
Voting In-Person in Crawford County: 42.7 percent
In Gays Mills, four candidates ran for three seats on the village board. Village trustees Aaron Fortney and Lee Ann Ruegg were re-elected-each received 97 votes. Newcomer Seamus Murray won election to the third seat with 76 votes and incumbent village trustee Albert Zegiel was not re-elected with 50 votes.
In Soldiers Grove, the three incumbent trustees were re-elected without opposition. The results were Roy Davidson-93 votes, Shayne Chapman-89 votes and Harrison Heilman-66 votes.
There were some changes on the North Crawford School Board as well, where four candidates were running for three open positions. Tanya Forkash led all candidates with 579 votes. Forkash is the former middle-high school secretary and previously served on the school board. Ed Heisz was also elected to board with 521 votes, as was Jill Stefonek with 487 votes. Heisz is well-known locally for his work with the American Legion and his long tenure as North Crawford girls track team coach. Stefonek, who was previously appointed to fill a vacant seat, won election for the first time. Wade Dull, an incumbent board member and member of the Crawford County Board, was not re-elected. Dull received 422 votes.
The Seneca School Board election featured three candidates running for two open seats. Leading the field was incumbent school board member and board president Mark Johnson. He received 320 votes.
For the other available seat, newcomer Britney Joy received 312 votes to defeat another newcomer to Seneca School Board elections, Shelly Davidson, who received 211 votes.
In the Crawford County Board District 14-the only contested board race, incumbent Geri Lorenz received 183 votes to defeat challenger Jeff Robinson, who received 138 votes. Lorenz carried Eastman Ward 2 and Wauzeka Ward 2, as well as the Village of Steuben. However, Robinson defeated Lorenz in Marietta Township 67-54.
In Crawford County Board District 1 there were no candidates on the ballot and incumbent Geri Kozelka received three write-in votes. They were the only votes cast in the race.
In the Wisconsin State Supreme Court election, Dane County Judge Jill Karofsky handily defeated Justice Dan Kelly to win a 10-year term on court.
Unofficial statewide election results from the Associated Press showed that with more than 80 percent of precincts reporting, Karofsky, a liberal, was leading Kelly, a conservative, 53 percent to 47 percent. Karofsky's win means that liberals will have a 3-4 minority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court decreasing current 5-2 conservative majority by one.
In Crawford County, Karofsky received 2,378 votes to defeat Kelly, who received 1,741.
In Wisconsin’s U.S. Presidential Primary, which everyone thought would be important earlier this year former Vice President Joe Biden easily defeated U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont), who had suspended his campaign prior to the election in Wisconsin..
With 99 percent of the vote reported statewide, Biden had 581,650 (63 percent) and Sanders had 293,655 (32 percent). The other five percent of the vote was cast for the other 10 candidates whose names appeared on the ballot, but had ceased campaigning earlier.
In Crawford County, Biden received 909 votes and Sanders had 405 votes. Another 94 votes were cast for the other 10 candidates on the ballot in the Democratic primary. In the Republican primary in Crawford County, President Donald Trump received 1,116 votes and 22 votes were cast for others.
In the Crawford County Township of Utica, a referendum was on the ballot which asked: Shall the person holding the office of Town Clerk in the Town of Utica be appointed by the Town Board? The 'yes' votes carried with 119, defeating the 'no' votes of 72.
