The city seat of Hamilton County was surprisingly quiet in the evening for all the activity earlier in the day on Tuesday. With 16 precincts in, the unofficial results showed a stellar turnout of more than 73.5% of eligible registered voters casting ballots. Hamilton County is home to just under 5,780 voters and 4,249 voters made their voice heard. Also impressive, as early and absent voting has become more preeminent, more than 1/3 of the ballots cast were delivered in that manner at 1,210.
Voters overwhelmingly said yes to the constitutional amendment question which will ban Transportation Revenue Reallocation. 2,543 voters said yes with only 769 voters saying no.
Trump/Pence dominated Hamilton County with 3,205 to Clinton/Kaine’s 800. There were 20 write in votes. Tammy Duckworth won the US Senator seat, but not in Hamilton County where Kirk carried with a 2,170 to 1,626 margin. Leslie Munger more than doubled up Susana Mendoza by a 2,420 to 1,183 count.
Challengers also enjoyed success versus incumbents in Hamilton County on Election Day. Dale Fowler upended Gary Forby 2,264 – 1,759 in the race for State Senator in the 59th Legislative District while Dave Severin topped John Bradley 750 – 575 in the 117th Representative District of the General Assembly. Voters did choose incumbent Brandon Phelps over challenger Jason Kasiar, but it was narrow. 1,347 – 1,333.
Locally, voters didn’t have many contested races to factor in. Beth Sandusky ran unopposed as did State’s Attorney Justin Hood. Steve Bowling, the Democrat defeated his Republican opponent for Coroner, 2,338 – 1,696. Voters chose 3 County Board members with 4 to choose from. Joe Bernard was the odd man out while John Chapman led the way with 2,349 votes. Newcomer Chad May will take a seat with 2,285 tallies and Brad Miller, the lone Democrat received 2,030 votes. Bernard mustered 1,815 votes.
In judge’s races, Hamilton County voters chose John Barberis over Brad Bleyer 2,175 – 1,326 and Justic James R. “Randy” Moore by a slim margin over Jo Beth Weber, 1,895 – 1,869. Across the board, in 3 retention questions, voters all by the same margin elected to keep Hopkins, Dunn and Lamar in the second judicial circuit. All three votes came in with around 1,900 yes votes and around 1,300 no votes.
These results are unofficial totals.
