Only a few new faces will assume the privilege and responsibility of helping lead city government in Sanpete’s 13 municipalities—but that is primarily because people preferred to play safe and vote the incumbents back in.
As of late Tuesday, unofficial results showed 10,309 Sanpete residents voted in this year’s municipal elections, a turnout of 51.9 percent, down 1.1 percent from 2017 and just 1/10th of 1 percent different from 2015 numbers.
“A few of the races were unopposed for several of their candidates.” Neill said. “With just one race on the ballot, that tends to make a difference (in turnout) …. We haven’t quite finished out yet, there are unofficial results and provisional ballots we may receive that could affect things still.”
Centerfield City Council
The proclivity for playing staff started in Centerfield where Jonah Christensen was reelected to one of the four-year seats with 255 (38.06 percent) of the votes. The second seat went to R. Ryan Stewart, who will fill the vacancy left when David Beck resigned to run for mayor and was defeated in the primary. Stewart got 197 votes (29.4 percent) in the four-way race.
Gary Lynn Childs garnered 133 votes, which, of course, didn’t make the cut, but was still significantly above Christi B Garff’s 85 votes.
Ephraim City Council
Ephraim City was a clear-cut case of incumbent domination with Margie Anderson and S. Lloyd Stevens garnering 723 votes and 706 votes respectively for a combined total of 79.48 percent.
Donny Durrrant put on a good showing, but still ran far behind the incumbents. He got 255 votes (14.07 percent) while a fourth contender, Wendel Eva Smith, got 116 (6.45 percent).
Fairview City Council
Two four-year council seats were up for grabs in Fairview City, and like in Ephraim, incumbents were strong performers.
Casey Anderson, with 321 votes (38.49 percent) and Shirlene Rasmussen’s 287 votes (34.41 percent), took the two seats.
Sean P. Rawlinson had 145 votes (17.39 percent) followed by Kirk A Watts, whose 81 votes earned him only 9.71 percent of the vote.
Fairview also had a two-year council seat available, but only Michael Mackay run for it and earned all 38 votes cast (100 percent).
Gunnison City Council
Gunnison City’s two four-year seats were a cinch because there were only two contenders and both were well-known and experienced candidates. Robert Andersen and Shawn Crane got 277 votes (51.39 percent) and 262 (48.61 percent).
Gunnison also had a single 2-year seat up for grabs and incumbent Michael Wanner took it by a long shot with 279 votes (77.07 percent). Jay Clayton got 83 votes, which accounted for 22.93 percent of the vote.
Manti City Council
Incumbent Mary Lonnie Wintch was the 600-lb. gorilla in the room when it came to Manti City voting for the two available four-year seats. Her 725 votes earned her 33.43 percent slice of the pie, followed by Jeffrey W. Killian, whose 561 votes brought in 25.86 percent. Both won seats on the council.
Gary Erickson trailed just behind Killian with 501 votes (23.1 percent), and Cory D. Schmidt pulled in 382 (17.61percent).
Mayfield Town Council
Jaden James took the most votes in town with 132, just above the other winner, Mike Bennett, who got 121.
Steven Liddiard and Diane Johnson trailed with 56 and 84, respectively.
Moroni City Council
In Moroni, Brad Aldridge, an artist who has been active in the community, and incumbent Fred Atkinson were top dogs, with 212 votes (30.24) and 210 votes (29.96percent).
Incumbent Troy Prestwich’s 2021 vote count of 185 (26.39 percent) didn’t quite cut the mustard, while Brandon Mellor’s 85 votes (13.41 percent) was also shy of a win.
Mt. Pleasant City Council
Mt. Pleasant City had two four-year seats up for grabs. The winners were Paul Madsen with 586 votes (33.39 percent) and Lynn Beesley with 456 votes (25.98 percent).
Dianne Blackham and Donalyn L. Shock, who advertised themselves as a tandem pair, got 355 and 358 respectively.
Spring City Council
Spring City’s four-year council seats went to Paul Penrod with 247 votes (34.79 percent) and Nancy Allred with 198 votes (27.89 percent).
Timothy Clark won a two-year seat 214 votes (56.17 percent). He defeated George Kenzy, who got 167 votes (43.83 percent).
Wales Town Council
Two four-year seats as well as two two-year seats in Wales were uncontested, with two candidates running in each race.
David Larsen led for one of the four-year posts with 101 votes (77.69 percent). David Brandon Rees was also elected with 23 votes (17.69 percent). In the two-year race, Marian Staci Taylor got 94 votes and Ronald Thompson, with 78 votes.
“Overall it was a really smooth election, “Neill said. “We had a few people call up mad because they can’t vote in the nearby city if they live in the county, but they just don’t understand the law.”
