Article Image Alt Text

Official results of 2020 general election are announced

OSMOND — The official results of the 2020 election are in, and locally, the only contested race was for city council. The tally for city council member in a vote for two race was: Dennis Haselhorst, 279; Doug Schmit, 274, and John R. Aschoff, 167.

For District 42R school board, in a vote for three, there were three candidates: Larry Krohn, 570; Michelle Reikofski, 533, and Mark Moes, 504.

There was only one candidate for Osmond City Mayor. Dennis Kuhl received 341 votes.

Other Local Races

For Pierce County Commissioner of District 1, Republican Tom Kuether had the majority of votes with 740, while Democrat James Aschoff had 528.

In the race for Lower Elkhorn NRD, Jay Reikofski had 1,877 votes, while Aaron Zimmerman had 1,543.

For the Foster and McLean boards of trustees, both were “vote for two” situations. For McLean, Doug Levos received 17 votes, with eight total write-ins listed. For Foster, Charles Flesner received 17 votes and Jerry Reikofski, 16.

There were two names on the ballot for Educational Service Unit 8 positions — Dan Garner for District 4 and Charles Balsiger for District 8. They received votes of 2,756 and 67, respectively, to be elected to those positions.

Ron Stech was the lone candidate in a vote-for-one situation for the Northeast Nebraska Public Power District board of directors, and received 421 votes.

One of the special issues on the ballot was whether the Pierce County Noxious Weed Board should be dissolved with its duties to be exercised by the Pierce County Board of Commissioners. County residents voted 2,204 to 1,406 in favor of the board being dissolved.

Another issue was that of the office of county surveyor, with voters in favor (2,557 to 1,220) of it remaining an elected position.

Statewide Numbers

Statewide, in the race for Congressional District 3, Republican Adrian Smith came out ahead with 224,077 votes to Democrat Mark Elworth Jr.’s 50,227. Dustin Hobbs received 10,818 votes.

On the senatorial ticket, Republican Ben Sasse had 574,901 votes, while Democrat Chris Janicek tallied 221,568 and Libertarian Gene Siadek had 54,088.

Tom Briese was the only legislative candidate in the running for District 41 and received 15,826 votes.

Proposed Amendments, Initiatives

There were two proposed amendments on the ballot this year. In the first, a vote for the amendment would eliminate a provision in the Nebraska Constitution that states that slavery or involuntary servitude may be used as a punishment for conviction of a crime. Nebraskans voted 592,609 to 276,631 for the amendment.

The second amendment would amend the constitution to authorize the Legislature to extend the maximum length of time for the repayment of indebtedness related to tax-increment financing from 15 years to 20 years if more than one-half of the property in the project area is designated as extremely blighted. This amendment also passed, 511,159 to 325,501.

The first initiative had to do with payday lenders and rate caps, while the next three involved the authorization, regulation and taxation of all forms of games of chance in Nebraska. All of these initiatives passed.

Presidential Race

In Pierce County at least, the race for president and vice president was clear. There were 3,462 votes for Donald Trump and Mike Pence, with only 480 for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Nationwide, the results have been unclear. The Associated Press has announced that Biden has won the election; however, Trump and his supporters are challenging the results.

Records Set

In many places, voter turnout numbers for the 2020 election have set records. Poll workers at the Osmond city auditorium stated that the line of voters last Tuesday morning was out the front door and down the sidewalk.

In Pierce County, voter turnout was at 80.44%. That compares to 74.42% in 2016, 71.07% in 2012, 65% in 2008 and 69% in 2004.

According to the information on the Nebraska Secretary of State’s website, voter turnout across the state was at 74.87%.

Stay in the know!

To get news alerts on your cell phone, get the Cedar County News app in the ITunes store or  in the Google Play Store.

Northeast Nebraska News Company

102 W. Main
Hartington NE 68739
402-254-3997