Retired Navy chief Rick Hannold secured the second slot for the commissioner District 3 election, and pulled far enough ahead to avoid a recount.
Primary election results were certified Tuesday morning.
Democrat Karla Jacks took the majority of the votes in the commissioner race with 3,028 votes. Hannold, a Republican, took the second general election spot with 946 votes, with interim Commissioner Aubrey Vaughan a close third with 896 votes — a 50-vote margin.
Hannold said his strategy was mainly “door knocking” and meeting people in person. Moving forward, he plans to step up his campaign with advertising and finding more volunteers to help out.
“I’m looking forward to the challenges of the general election,” Hannold said.
A total of 233 ballots were rejected by the elections office for the primary due to late postage dates and other issues.
Commissioner Jill Johnson commented at Monday’s regular commission meeting that with races this close, every vote needs to count.
Vaughan, who was appointed to the District 3 position in May, said it was unfortunate that so many votes had to be rejected.
“Yes, I’m disappointed that those votes weren’t counted,” Vaughan said Tuesday. “But would they have swung the election one way or the other? We’ll never know.”
Only voters within District 3 cast ballots for the commissioner primary, but the winner will be decided in the general election through a county-wide vote.
The election for county treasurer is an even closer race.
Democratic incumbent Ana Maria Nuñez took the majority of votes with 7,847, but the other two candidates were still within 11 votes of each other at certification.
A manual recount is required by statute in a race this close and will begin Monday morning.
Republicans Wanda Grone and Christa Canell took 4,754 and 4,743 respectively.
In the County Auditor’s race incumbent Sheilah Crider took 9,287 with challenger Rebecca Wagner taking 6,955 votes.
Incumbents for county prosecutor, sheriff, coroner, county clerk, and assessor all ran unopposed. No write-in candidates gained enough votes to be placed on the ballot.
