Erickson, Lee capture contested races

Winners of Humboldt County's GOP primary races last June sailed to victory Tuesday during the 2020 general election in the county. In the only contested races locally, David Lee topped John D. (JD) Myers for Supervisor District 5, which includes all of Lake and Grove townships, the eastern third of Vernon Township and the northern half of Norway Township, along with the city of Dakota City. Lee collected 572 votes to 385 for Myers, 60 percent to 40 percent.
The only other contested race was for County Auditor, where Republican primary winner Trish Erickson captured 69.6 percent of the votes cast with 3,418. Chris Freund (pronounced Friend) gathered 1,258, or 25.6 percent and Cody Lawman gained 226 votes or 4.6 percent.
In uncontested races, Sheriff Dean Kruger won re-election with 4,828 votes, or 98.1 percent of votes casts. There were 93 write-in votes. For Supervisor District 4, Livermore's Erik Underberg was running unopposed and easily won re-election to a second term with 829 votes. There were 22 write-ins.
In national and state races, President Donald Trump carried the day in Humboldt County receiving 3,812 votes or nearly 72 percent to 1,439 votes for Joe Biden, 27 percent. Statewide, Trump gathered 53 percent of the state's voters to 45 percent for Biden. Nationally, the race is still too close to call and neither man has the 270 Electoral College votes to be elected. Biden leads the popular vote by about 4 million with 92 percent of the votes counted. As of Friday afternoon, Biden had 253 electoral votes to 214 for Trump, with 270 votes needed. Biden was leading in battle ground states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona. A win in Pennsylvania would put him over the top. Trump leads in North Carolina.
For U.S. Senate in Humboldt County, Joni Ernst claimed 3,664 votes to 1,440 votes for Theresa Greenfield., 69.7 percent for Ernst to 27.4 percent for Greenfield. Libertarian candidate Rick Stewart received 106 votes and Suzanne Herzog netted 40. Statewide, Ernst won by 110,000 votes, 52 percent to 45 percent.
For U.S. Rep. in District 4, Republican Randy Feenstra was the choice of more than 70 percent of the county's voters 3,595 to 1,469 votes for Democrat J.D. Scholten. Scholten had campaigned several times in Humboldt County and the area. Feenstra from Hull, won the district by just over 90,000 votes, 234,159 to 142,322 for Scholten. The seat was open but will remain in Republican hands after Feenstra defeated Steve King of Kiron in the primary last June and won again Tuesday night. For State Rep. District 10, incumbent Mike Sexton (R-Rockwell City) defeated Democrat challenger Carmella Schultes of Rolfe 3,881 to 1,164, 76.5 percent for Sexton and 23.3 percent for Schultes, who was making her first run for public office. In District 10 overall, Sexton won 11,861 votes (76 percent) to 3,817 for Schultes (24 percent), the same breakdown as in Humboldt County.
There was one other locally contested race. Gary Peyton (2,315) topped Vouth Varangkounh (1,700) for a seat on the Humboldt County Extension Council to fill a vacancy.
The big news of the night may have been the turnout. From an overwhelming number of absentee ballots combined with a strong turnout at the polls Tuesday, it was one of the largest participation levels ever. Humboldt County Commissioner of Elections Peggy Rice reported that 5,343 of the county's 6,396 registered voters cast ballots, 83.5 percent. Congrats Humboldt County in exercising your democratic right to vote.
These totals are all unofficial. Check next week's Humboldt Independent newspaper for the official count.

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