Primary election sees one local contested race

     Turnout for the June 4 Primary Election in Jones County showed 6.5 percent, with not quite 1,000 registered voters casting their ballots. Nine hundred sixteen ballots were cast out of 14,089 registered voters in the county.

   Statewide, voter turnout was 8.3 percent. (183,630 ballots cast out of 2,212,909 registered voters in Iowa.)

   In terms of local races, there was just one contested county supervisor seat for District 5 between Republican candidates Jeff Swisher, the incumbent, and Jennifer Karpf. Swisher won the race with 76.37 percent (488 votes) to Karpf's 23.26 percent (148 votes).

   Supervisor John Schlarmann, District 1; Sheriff Greg Graver; and County Auditor Whitney Hein were all uncontested and won re-election. Schlarmann received 582 votes with four write-ins; Graver with 624 votes with seven write-ins; Hein with 588 votes with five write-ins.

   There were no candidates running on the Republican ticket for Supervisor District 2; however, there were 38 write-ins.

   Supervisor Joe Oswald was uncontested on the Democratic ticket for District 2. He received 206 votes with one write-in.

   There were no Democrats running for Supervisor Districts 1 and 5. There were 15 and seven write-ins respectively. In a similar situation, there were five write-ins on the Democrat ticket for auditor; 20 for sheriff.

   U.S. Representative for District 1, which includes Jones County, saw a primary race between incumbent Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks and David Pautsch. District-wide, Miller-Meeks won with 55.88 percent (16,446 votes) compared to Pautsch's 43.92 percent (12,926 votes). In Jones County, though, Pautsch got the lead with 50.47 percent (324 votes) to Miller-Meeks' 49.38 percent (317 votes).

   Iowa Rep. Steven Bradley saw 1,565 votes throughout District 66 with 40 write-ins. In Jones County, he had 547 votes with 23 write-ins.

   Democrat Christina Bohannan, a candidate for U.S. Representative District 1, received 13,834 votes throughout the district; 219 votes from Democrats in Jones County.

   Andy McKean, the Democrat who will be running against Bradley in November for Iowa Representative District 66, received 326 votes throughout the district; no write-ins. In Jones County, he got 230 votes, also no write-ins.

   The Jones County Board of Supervisors will canvass the results of the June 4 Primary Election following their meeting on June 11. Full election results can be found at www.jonescountyiowaelections.gov/elections/past/.