News

Large turnout for Election Day

By Scott Wagar

11/13/2012

Over 3,000 voters came out to the polls in Bottineau County on election day and voted primarily on the Republican side, but the Democrats in the county pulled out some important wins in both the upper and lower houses in the state.

In the five precincts in the county, 3,538 votes were cast with the following results.

Although Barack Obama won the presidential race nationwide with 50.40 percent of the vote to Mitt Romney’s 48.01 percent, voters in Bottineau County stayed to their true roots in the Republican party and gave Romney the top vote with 2,246 votes (64.17 percent), while Obama carried 1,163 (33.23 percent).

In the governorship for the state of North Dakota, the Republican incumbent, Jack Dalrymple earned 63 percent of the vote to the Democratic candidate, Ryan Taylor who received 37 percent of the cast vote. In the county, Dalrymple was granted 2,179 votes (62.81 percent) to Taylor’s 1,226 votes (35.34 percent).   

In the controversial U.S. Senate race between Rick Berg and Heidi Heitkamp, the statewide victory went to the Democratic candidate Heitkamp with fewer than 3,000 votes over Berg. In Bottineau County, the county’s Republicans once again stayed with their candidate and granted Berg 1,847 votes (53.14 percent) to Heitkamp’s 1,609 votes (46.29).

With Heitkamp’s victory over Berg, it brings democratic control of the U.S. Senate to 53 seats. The Republicans will hold 45 seats.

In the U.S. House of Representatives campaign, the Republican candidate Kevin Cramer received 172,905 votes to the Democratic candidate, Pam Gulleson, who was granted 131, 396 votes. Bottineau County stayed in tune with the state vote with Cramer receiving 1,965 votes (57.01 percent) to Gulleson’s 1,389. (Note: Liberal candidate Eric Olson received 86 votes, or 2.49 percent of the vote in this campaign.)

In the state Senate, District Six saw a tight race between incumbent Sen. David O’Connell-D, Lansford against Pamela Smith of Bottineau. O’Connell won the race with 3,993 votes (54.22 percent) to Smith’s 3,356 votes (45.57 percent).
In Bottineau County, O’Connell pulled out the victory by 362 votes, earning 1,911 votes (55.07 percent) to Smith’s 1,549 votes (44.64 percent).

In the state House, the Republicans and Democrats split the house seats with Democratic incumbent Bob Hunskor-D, Newburg, and Republican candidate Richard Anderson of Willow City earning the two seats in the Lower House. Hunskor earned the most votes 3,811 (28.59 percent) in the district while Anderson had 3,476 votes (26.08 percent). Republican candidate Myron Hanson lost in the district with 3,170 votes (23.78 percent) along with Democratic candidate Cindy Shattuck who received 2,857 votes (21.44 percent).   

In Bottineau County, the top vote getter was Hunskor with 1,961 votes (31.75 percent) and Anderson receiving 1,535 votes (24.85 percent), while Hanson fell short of Anderson by 27 votes in Bottineau County, earning 1,508 votes (24.41 percent) with Shattuck getting 1,165 (18.86 percent).

In the Bottineau County Commissioner races, incumbent Jeff Beyer of District 2 ran unopposed and won his seat back with 661 votes.

In District 4, incumbent Verdean Kveum lost his seat to Lance Kjelshus who defeated Kveum 396 to 328 votes.

Of the five measures on the general ballot, the state passed four of the five measures with Measure One (revoke the authority for the poll tax and remove the offensive language) receiving 71 percent of the vote; Two (require the governor and other executive officials to take an oath of office) with 89 percent off the vote; Three (block any law which abridges the right of farmers and ranchers) with 67 percent of the vote and Four (ban smoking in all indoor workplaces) with 67 percent of the vote. Measure Five (make it a felony to maliciously harm a cat, dog, or horse, with exemptions for people with occupations involving animals) was defeated with 65 percent of the vote.

In Bottineau County, the same results occurred with the measures. Measure One was approved by 69 percent; Measure Two received 86 percent; Measure Three received 65 percent while Measure Four came in at 60 percent. Measure Five was defeated by 75 percent of the vote.

The State’s Executive Branch saw each office won by the Republican candidate with the following results in the state’s vote. State Auditor: Robert Peterson (R) – 62 percent and Scott Kelsh (D) – 37 percent. State Treasurer: Kelly Schmidt (R) – 66 percent and Ross Mushik (D) – 34 percent. Insurance Commissioner: Adam Hamn (R) – 63 percent and Tom Potter (D) – 37 percent. Public Service Commissioner: Randy Christmann (R) – 54 percent, Brad Crabtree (D) – 41 percent and Joshua Voytek (Lib) – four percent. Superintendent of Public Instruction: Kristen Baesler – 55 percent and Tracy Potter – 45 percent.

The results of the state’s executive branch election were also the same in Bottineau County with Republicans winning all the seats in the county’s general election. State Auditor: Robert Peterson (R) – 69 percent and Scott Kelsh (D) – 30 percent. State Treasurer: Kelly Schmidt (R) – 66 percent and Ross Mushik (D) – 28 percent. Insurance Commissioner: Adam Hamn (R) – 67 percent and Tom Potter (D) – 33 percent. Public Service Commissioner: Randy Christmann (R) – 59 percent, Brad Crabtree (D) – 37 percent and Joshua Voytek (Lib) – four percent. Superintendent of Public Instruction: Kristen Baesler – 53 percent and Tracy Potter – 47 percent.

In other races on Bottineau County ballot, where individuals ran unopposed, Daniel J. Crothers was voted in as Bottineau County’s Justice of Supreme Court, M. Richard Geiger as the District Court No. 6 Northeast Judicial District judge and John C. McClintock as the District Court No. 7 Northeast Judicial District judge.

Virgil Hall won the supervisor position of the Mouse River Soil Conservation District with 874 votes, Michael Erdman gained the supervisor position of the Turtle Mountain Soil Conservation District with 2,050 votes and Kenny Rogers earned the director position with the Garrison Diversion Conservancy with 2,899 votes.     

Note:
These are unofficial results gathered from North Dakota’s Secretary of State website.