Editors Note: This article was originally published in the Nov. 29, 2023 issue of the Chronicle Progress. Some information may be outdated.
Millard County voters setting $4.5 million of their own money on fire was not the only takeaway from the county’s 2023 general election.
Loads of municipal races were decided—though one may end in a tie. And the county electorate again came out in full-throated support of former U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart’s hand-picked successor to his seat in Congress.
Though the results are still preliminary and unofficial— with 400 ballots left to tabulate as of Monday—county election officials expect all towns and cities to have canvassed their races by Wednesday this week, with a countywide canvass scheduled for Dec. 5 at noon.
Hinckley’s heated town board races lead the way with a vote canvass scheduled for Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Early results from the three-way, write-in race for two four-year seats on the Hinckley Town Board show that town’s former mayor, Donald Brown, leading among the candidates. He gained 106 votes against opponents Ray Searle and Skip Taylor, who tied at 83 votes each.
Hinckley officials said if those totals hold after Tuesday’s vote canvass, a tie-breaker in the form of a coin toss or drawing names out of a hat will decide the race.
This particular race got some unwanted attention after one candidate complained his signs were vandalized. A town employee was also caught advertising two other candidates on the back of a town-owned vehicle, a violation of state election laws.
A separate race for a two-year seat on the Hinckley Town Board was much more tranquil. Early vote totals released on election night shows Chris Mork leading Gina Tolbert 102 to 69 in that race.
County Clerk Marki Rowley said Hinckley is the only municipality to be holding its canvass on Tuesday. The remaining municipalities with competitive races were scheduled to canvass their votes on Wednesday. Rowley said Hinckley’s untabulated ballots would be counted ahead of the Tuesday canvass.
In Delta’s city council election, four candidates—two incumbents and two newcomers—competed for three seats. The incumbents did not fair well. Brett Bunker likely lost his seat, gaining the lowest vote total of the four candidates, according to the unofficial results. He gained 314 votes to incumbent Nick Killpack’s 381, KC Bogue’s 468 and Kelly Carter’s 536.
Holden, Leamington and Kanosh also hosted competitive races for their town boards.
In Holden, five competed for two four-year seats. Tamara Dallin led the pack with 76 votes, followed by Laree Stephenson’s 59 votes, according to preliminary results.
Roger Stevens gained 25 votes in the race, followed by write-in candidate Jim Blodgett’s 18 votes and Melvin Bennett’s 17 votes.
In Leamington, three candidates competed for two four-year council seats. Devin Palmer topped the trio with 51 votes as of election night, followed by Clark Nielson’s 33 votes and write-in candidate John Aagard’s 13 votes.
In Kanosh, four candidates competed for two four-year council seats. Dan Degraffenreid scored the most votes as of election night with 95, followed by Joshua Whitaker’s 88 votes, Hayden George’s 67 votes and Geraldine Minton’s 60 votes.
By far Millard County’s biggest vote-getter in last week’s general election contest was Republican congressional candidate Celeste Maloy, who ran away with the county’s congressional race by gaining 2,512 votes. Her closest challenger on election night was Democrat Kathleen Riebe, who earned only 250 votes from the county electorate.
Maloy would go on to run away with the entire district, according to preliminary vote tallies across Utah’s 2nd Congressional District. Maloy took home about 57 percent of the vote total, or 87,649 ballots. Her closest challenger was again Riebe, the Democrat, who carried almost 34 percent of the vote, 52,253 ballots tabulated in her favor at the end of election night. Riebe carried only one county—Salt Lake—of the district’s 13 counties. Maloy won all the rest.
Back in Millard County, there were approximately 6,918 active voters registered for the 2023 general election. As of Monday, about 3,050 total ballots had been tabulated, representing a turnout of about 44 percent of voters, according to a running total calculated by the clerk’s office and public on the clerk’s election website.
Rowley said she expects voter turnout to rise as the clerk’s office tallies the remaining 400 votes ahead of Dec. 5.
