Primary voter turnout larger than expected, but still well under 20%

Voter turnout for the Tuesday’s primary much higher than the La Crosse County clerk predicted, but still very low.

With primaries for La Crosse School Board and a La Crosse County Board seat on the ballot, there was a 16.5% turnout — 5,671 votes out of 34,419 registered voters.

County clerk Ginny Dankmeyer predicted turnout would be about 10 percent.

In the school board race, it appears that one of two incumbent won’t be moving on. Eight were on the ballot and six move on to the April 5 primary. There were 16,296 votes cast.

School Board President, Dr. Juan Jimenez, received the most votes, with Dr. Merideth Garcia and Katie Berkeda coming in second and third.

Incumbent Dawn Comeau and Jake Williams were both eliminated.

The three other candidates to survive the primary — Kimberly Krejchik, Kent Stein and Mary LaMothe — ran together as a group taking the final three spots. 

Here are the unofficial results:

• Juan F. Jimenez 3,365 19.82%
• Katie Berkedal 3,106 18.30%
• Merideth Garcia 2,918 17.19%
• Kimberly Krejchik 1,728 10.18%
• Kent Stein 1,688 9.94%
• Mary LaMothe 1,643 9.68%
• Dawn Comeau 1,298 7.65%
• Jake Williams 530 3.12%
• Write-In Totals 20 0.12%
• Total Votes Cast 16,296 95.99%

As for the county board, incumbent Gary Padesky had over 50% of the votes and Sharon Hampson also moves onto the April 5 election. There were 781 votes cast.

County Supervisor District 7 unofficial results:

• Sharon Hampson 247 30.20%
• Ellie McLoone 107 13.08%
• Gary W. Padesky 424 51.83%
• Write-In Totals 3 0.37%
• Total Votes Cast 781 95.48%

The Westby School Board was also on the ballot for about 100 county voters. Twelve people voted.

Westby Area School Board Member Seat No. 7

• Eric Thunstedt 6 50.00%
• Kelly Nickelotti 5 41.67%
• Geniece Easterday 1 8.33%
• Write-In Totals 0 0.00%
• Total Votes Cast 12 100.0