No changes in election winners after official canvass

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

None of the election results in Floyd County changed Tuesday afternoon after the Board of Supervisors made the official certification of votes cast in the Nov. 5 city and school board elections, although the school results are still unofficial.

Gloria Carr, Floyd County auditor and commissioner of elections, said one provisional ballot and 9 absentee ballots that had arrived within the allowable time were added to the totals that had been reported after the election last week, but those votes didn’t change any of the winners.

In the city of Colwell, where there were no candidates on the ballot, the number of write-in votes changed slightly after the canvass, but the top vote-getters remained Jennifer Cross, 10; Ryan Wegner, 7; Judy Budwig, 8; Rachael Krause, 7; and Mark Kirsch, 5; for the Colwell City Council, and Jeff Wright with 7 votes for Colwell mayor.

The results of votes in the school elections are not yet official because a second tier canvass must be held  to count those vote totals.

Beginning this year, school district residents vote in their home county for school board members and other school issues, even if the schools they attend are in another county. In the past, when school elections were held in September, those residents had to travel to the county where the schools were located to vote.

That means this year, for example, that some residents of Chickasaw County who live in the Charles City School District voted in Chickasaw County, and so those votes were not available to be officially counted in Floyd County until the Chickasaw County canvass takes place and those results are sent to Floyd County.

Likewise, on Wednesday the Floyd County supervisors canvassed the votes of Floyd County residents who are part of the Central Springs, Osage, Nashua-Plainfield and North Butler school districts and sent those results to Worth, Mitchell, Chickasaw and Butler counties.

The second-tier canvass in Floyd County to make the election results official for the Charles City School District and Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock School District will take place at 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 18.

On Tuesday morning, during their regular meeting, the Floyd County supervisors began action on what will likely result in several new housing lots on 195th Street just northwest of Charles City.

The board approved the first reading of a resolution changing zoning from agricultural to R-1 residential on 1.58 acres of land owned by Raymond Holzer. A second reading of the resolution will be held at the supervisors’ meeting Nov. 17.

Holzer said he will also begin the process of subdividing the property into seven lots.