Gasconade County Republican

general_election_11Schatz wins easily over Sage in 61st race; Dixon claims Osage Sheriff’s office

Republicans Tom Hurst of Meta and Dave Schatz of Sullivan won easily in their General Election races for House  of Representatives seats in the 62nd and 61st districts respectively.

Both Hurst and Schatz won Gasconade County voter approval by large margins. Hurst collected 2,701 votes in the county to Democratic challenger Greg Stratman’s 1,732. Hurst won Osage County 2,753 to 1,327 over Stratman. Hurst’s numbers in Phelps County over Stratman were 1,205 to 849 and prompted Stratman to concede the election shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday.

Miller County voters also chose Hurst by a 703 to 212 margin.

Schatz won the county with 2,067 votes to 939 for Sage, a Democrat from Bay (see page 13 for Franklin County results from this race).

In Osage County, Michael Dixon easily won the race for sheriff. Dixon, a Republican polled 3,151 votes to win the race over Democratic challenger Shannon Linhardt who received 1,886 votes. Gary Storey, a write-in candidate, received 1,558 votes.

“Mom, this one’s for you”

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill won re-election in her race over U.S. Congressman Todd Akin in a race conceded by 10 p.m.

“Guess what mom, you finally won rural Missouri,” said McCaskill said during her victory party. McCaskill’s mother, Betty, died during the final week of the campaign.

Gasconade County voters, however, favored Akin 3,603 (51.2 percent) to 2,927 over McCaskill (41.6 percent). Libertarian Jonathan Dine received 493 votes in the county (7 percent). Betty McCaskill and former U.S. Sen. Jean Carnahan visited The Republican’s office during the 2008 presidential campaign — both were strong supporters of Democratic candidates.

County voters miss on Governor

Gasconade County voters favored Republican challenger Dave Spence over incumbent Gov. Jay Nixon 3,775 to 3,182. Spence conceded the election at 10:30 p.m. while trailing 51.4 percent to 45.4 percent with 69 percent of the state’s vote counted.

Nixon won 54.7 to 42.6 percent across the state. “It has been an exciting day. To the people of Missouri, thank you for supporting me as your governor,” Nixon told his supporters in St. Louis.

County voters favored incumbent Republican Peter Kinder for another term as Lt. Governor, 4,546 over Democratic challenger and former State Auditor Susan Montee who received 2,119 votes. Kinder won by a 49.4-percent margin over Montee’s 45.6 percent tally.

Shane Schoeller, the Republican candidate for Secretary of State who visited Gasconade County in September, won the county by a 61.5 to 35.4 -percent margin over Democrat Jason Kander (4,249 to 2,445). Kander won the statewide  race, however, by a slim 48.8 to 47.5 percent margin.

Schoeller held a 51.2 to 45-percent margin across the state at 11 p.m. but Kander was clinging to a slim 48.2 to 48.1-percent lead at midnight with 91 percent of the statewide total counted.

In another interesting state race, incumbent Attorney General Chris Koster, a Democrat, lost in the county to Republican challenger Ed Martin by 490 votes (3,615 to 3,125). Koster, however, won the statewide vote by a 55.8 to 40.7-percent margin in final but unofficial results.

Clint Zweifel, incumbent state treasurer, lost the county to Democrat Cole McNary (3,933 to 2,715) but won across Missouri by a 50.3 percent to 45.5-percent margin.

Obama re-elected as President

President Barack Obama won re-election but lost heavily in the county. Republican Mitt Romney received 4,895 votes (69.36 percent) to Obama’s 2,099 (29.31 percent). Romney won the statewide vote 53.9 to 44.3 percent.

Ward 1 scanner malfunction

Locally, 90 ballots cast before a replacement optical scanner machine was delivered early Tuesday were secured in a locked container on the machine.

“There’s a secrecy bin,” said Lietzow. “They all get dropped in. Judges from each party will feed them through and it will be done. Like everything else they do there, it will be a two-party job.”

The malfunction did not interrupt voting in Ward 1, said election workers at the fire station on Springfield Road.

“We’ve had that problem before at another election,” said Lietzow. “It’s not so unusual. It worked fine in Springfield where it is cleaned and stored. It worked fine when we tested it here in Hermann and when we turned it on it doesn’t. We ran test ballots through in Hermann. It was tested three times.”

Lietzow said Lynn Kurrelmeyer, chief deputy clerk who lives near Swiss, has basically had the assignment to remain to home on election mornings to make sure she is close to the southern half of the county to help in the case of malfunctioning voting equipment.

Poll workers call Lietzow by 6:05, Kurrelmeyer was notified within minutes and went to Owensville to try and fix the machine. She called for a replacement machine to be sent from Hermann and met the courthouse custodian at Drake to transfer the machines. The machine was replaced by around 7:30, said Lietzow.

“We have to prepare for things like that,” said Lietzow.

Across the county, 66.9 percent or 7,206 of the 10,805 registered voters cast ballots.

Tayloe precinct voters at Bem cast the county’s highest percentage of ballots, 75 percent. Drake precinct recorded a 74-percent turnout. Voters in Owensville’s Ward 1 posted the lowest turnout at 52 percent. Turnout in Ward 2 in Owensville was 58 percent. Rural Canaan posted a 61-percent turnout at Owensville High School.

County voters rejected a tobacco tax (Proposition B) by a wide margin, 63.79 percent to 36.21 percent. Statewide, the vote was much closer — 50.8 to 49.2 percent with 1,357,437 no votes cast and 1,314,856 yes votes.

Missourians approved restrictions to health exchange provisions by a 61.8 to 38.2-percent margin across the state.

State voters also approved granting St. Louis residents control over their police by a margin of 63.9 to 36.1 percent.