Incumbent defeated in Livermore

By KENT THOMPSON
There will be a change of the guard on the Livermore City Council come 2024. Three-term incumbent councilwoman Janice Frost Schmieder was defeated in in her election bid to serve a fourth term on Tuesday.
Newcomer Dean Thompson outpolled all council members on the ballot with 61 votes unofficially, with incumbent council member Todd Russell scoring 55 for the second of the two seats. Schmieder received only 18 votes. There were four write-ins.
Livermore Mayor Billie Scott, who won a three-person special election last year, ran unopposed and won with 70 votes.
Livermore was not the only area town with contested races.
In Bode, seven people ran for five seats on the council. Receiving the most votes were Carol Miller with 37, Paula Fulwider with 35, Glenn Hasfjord with 30, Jess Tepner with 29 and Robert McKenna with 28. Falling just short was Ryan McCart with 23 votes. Myra Barnes collected 11. D.L. Peterson was running unopposed for the mayor of Bode and received 42 votes.
Dakota City will have new faces around the council table in the fact that incumbent council members Tim Vought and Justin Kirchhoff are not running for re-election.
Incumbent Jonathon Stern did seek a second term and was re-elected, although he was not the top vote-getter According to the unofficial totals, Ross Newton received the most votes with 48 and Stern collected 41 to retain his seat. Also elected was Sami Pals with 35 votes. Mychal Edler was the other declared candidate and he received 17 votes in a losing effort. Incumbent Mayor Sean Phillips was re-elected with 53 votes.
Hardy had a race with five declared candidates for three at-large seats. Austin Thompson was a clear winner with 14 votes. However, there was a three-way tie for second. Tammie Tuttle, Madison Tuttle and Dennis Lippolt all received 8 votes. With only two being needed, the winner may be determined by a draw, unless the numbers change in the final counting. James A. Hutchinson was the other declared candidate and he received 5 votes. Hardy Mayor Kathy Petersen was re-elected with 11 votes.
Humboldt had no contested races. A total of 240 people voted in Humboldt.
Incumbent Mayor Dan Scholl was re-elected with 225 votes. There were 15 write-in votes.
For city council, Ward 1 candidate Matt Dominick received 85 votes with three write-ins. In Ward 2, longtime council member John Sleiter received 72 votes with three write-ins. In Ward 3, incumbent Joel Goodell received 67 votes with two write-ins.
Jeff Harklau has served on the city council for nearly a year. He was running to fill the vacant term of the late Mike Worthington. Harklau received 236 votes with three write-ins.
For the Humboldt Park Board, Tom Tecklenburg and Tom Nostrom both ran for re-election and were elected with 230 votes and 217 votes, respectively. Tyler Nielsen chose not to run for re-election so the third seat on the board will be determined by write-in. The Humboldt County Auditor’s Office reports that there were 23 write-in votes.
In Ottosen, Monte Newton ran to retain his seat as mayor and won with 22 votes. There were five people running for two at-large seats on the Ottosen City Council. Bruce Bleuer with 12 votes and Eric Miller with 10 were the top vote-getters. Other totals were Jan Brown with 8, Micah Mitchell with 7 and Chris Thompson with 5.
Thor was another town with a tie vote for council.
Three people were on the ballot and Tracy Nerem was a clear winner with 21 votes. Nick Rosendahl and Terry Bender were vying for the other at-large seat and both tied with seven votes. There will be a draw for the second seat unless the numbers change. Emory Wayne White ran unopposed for mayor and was re-elected with 12 votes.
In Renwick, Mayor Taylor Kunert won re-election with 36 votes. For city council, three men were running for three at-large seats. Daniel Kraft received 35 votes, Andrew Berte received 32 and Robert Wolf garnered 29, There were 10 write-in votes.
Leadership in the towns of Bradgate and Rutland will be determined by write-in. There were no announced candidates in either community. There were seven votes for mayor in Bradgate and 14 votes for two seats on the city council.
In Rutland, there were 17 votes for mayor and 51 votes for three people to serve on the city council. Those winners will be announced.
Gilmore City has voters in both Humboldt and Pocahontas sides of the county line.
Mayor Landon Bailey was running unopposed. He collected 22 votes in Humboldt County and 45 in Pocahontas for a total of 67.
Three people were running for three at-large seats on the city council. Paul Kipfer received 22 votes in Humboldt County and 41 from Pocahontas County for a total of 63. Jacob Peterson received 21 votes on the Humboldt side and 39 on the Pocahontas side for 60. Mary Torkelson received 21 votes from Humboldt County and 36 from Pocahontas County for 57.
Running for an at-large seat to fill a council vacancy was Irina Jacobs. She received 62 votes total, 20 from Humboldt County voters.
Most of the activity in Lu Verne was on the Kossuth County side of the line.
According to the unofficial totals, only one person in Humboldt County in the city of Lu Verne voted in the election, casting a vote for Kevin McPeak as mayor and Dennis Carroll, Kelsey Casey and Scott Frideres as council members, all running unopposed. When the Kossuth County totals were added, McPeak finished with 33 votes. Casey and Frideres had 34 each and Carroll finished with 31.
In Pocahontas County there was a contest in Rolfe, with four candidates for two at-large city council seats.
Lana Pratt with 72 votes and Rob Jackson with 71, topped Joshua “Bear” Robertson, 56 votes and Jeremy Sauter, 53 votes for the two seats. There were also 48 write-in votes. For mayor of Rolfe, Jim Pentico received 110 votes.
In Clare, Barbara Passow was re-elected mayor with 27 votes. For city council, six candidates sought five council seats. Being elected were Gary Fitzgerald with 24 votes, Matthew McCubbin with 22, Mike McFarland and Dennis Stuhrenberg with 20 each and Doug Yetmar with 19. Tyler Schadegg fell short with 11 votes. There were two write-ins.
In Badger there was a crowded field for council member at-large, with six candidates running for three seats.
According to the unofficial totals, elected were Jeff Brundige with 69 votes, Nathan Jones with 63 and Teresa Larson-White with 52. Other people receiving votes were Jessica A. Moore with 38, Ralph Bryan with 34 and Cinthia L. Dencklau with 31.
In Goldfield, Gabriel Fiscus was elected mayor with 69 votes. Chris Petersen and Tom Crees were running unopposed for two council seats. Petersen polled 66 votes and Crees had 59.

School Board elections
In Humboldt, two school board directors were elected to the Humboldt Board of Education.
In Director District 2, Kristi Clark received 357 votes. There were 17 write-in votes.
In District 4, Jim Mertz received 370 votes. There were four write-in votes. There were a total of 374 votes cast.
In Gilmore City-Bradgate School elections, there were three candidates to fill director at-large seats.
Abbi Telford and April Smith were the winners, each receiving 70 votes. Angie Jergens was the other candidate, receiving 58 votes. There were 200 votes cast.
For the at-large to fill a vacancy seat, Devin Ellrich was the lone candidate and received 96 votes.
For Twin Rivers Community School, there were four candidates for three seats.
The top vote-getters were Ashley Foth with 118 votes and Kaylyn Stalzer with 108. The other top candidate was Emily Jensen with 94. Megan Warnke fell short of being elected with 56 votes. There were 378 votes cast.
In West Bend-Mallard there were four candidates for four at-large seats.
The totals were Nicole Myer with 206, John Zaugg with 198, Dawn Schmidt with 197 and Jillian Hansen 195. There were 9 write-in votes.
Likewise, Algona had four candidates for four seats. Elected were Brent Owen (787), Todd Louwagie (720), Tom Nugent (696) and Andrea Vinci (686). There were 16 write-in votes. Voters from the former Lu Verne School District now vote in the Algona School elections.
There are a large number of Humboldt County residents in the Eagle Grove Community School District.
Three people ran for three seats with Darren Robinson (616), Amanda Willard (569) and Tracy Crail (543) being elected. Two public measures also passed.
For complete official results see the Nov. 16 Humboldt Independent.