BY LUCIE KRISMAN
UPDATED 10:13 p.m.
With all precincts reporting, Eudora residents re-elected Ruth Hughs and Tim Bruce and elected Roberta Lehmann to the Eudora City Commission in this year's general election.
In complete but unofficial results, Hughs received 450 votes, Lehmann 392 votes, Bruce 356 votes, Rex Tedrow 230 votes and Peter Latta 171 votes.
Hughs said it was a "huge honor" to be re-elected.
"I appreciate the confidence that the voters have in me as one of the city commissioners," she said. "I'm excited that I will have four more years to continue the path that we've started. It'll be good to see the Nottingham project started and perhaps even completed. We have an opportunity to make a difference and it's a real privilege to be given four more years."
Bruce also expressed appreciation for the voters' support.
"I'm excited to serve another four years and can't wait to continue moving the city forward," Bruce said.
Lehmann said she was "very honored" to win a seat on the commission.
"I look forward to serving for the next four years and making Eudora a progressive place to live," she said.
In the School Board race, all four on the ballot will take seats on the board. Mark Chrislip received 589 votes, Lynn Reazin 537, Becky Plate 519 and Bryan Maring 477. There were 30 write-ins.
While casting his vote in this year’s election earlier Tuesday, Raymond Goff said he kept in mind the value of choosing who will be elected to help the community.
“I’m always glad to have a choice,” he said. “You vote for the people that you think will do the most good, and that’s what I did in there.”
This year, Eudora residents elected candidates to the City Commission and School Board as well as voted on a constitutional question about including nonresident college students and military personnel in local Census data for elections.
Karla Grosdidier, a polling precinct supervisor at the Eudora Parks and Recreation center, said the typical busiest times for voter turnout are in the morning, lunch hour and when schools are letting out in the afternoon.
“It’s been slow but possibly a little better than we expected,” Grosdidier said mid-afternoon Tuesday.
Aaron Lathrom, who worked at the Township Fire Station polling precinct, said 165 voters out of a total of 479 in that precinct opted for advanced voting. As of 3 p.m., 110 voters had come to cast their vote in person.
“We’re at average or a little above average for this precinct,” Lathrom said. “For this type of election, we’re going to average about 18 to 20 percent, which is pretty good.”
Lathrom said voting in smaller elections as opposed to bigger elections is important because the votes in these elections have a bigger impact on issues on the local level.
“I think it’s important for voters to show up at local elections because their vote has more of an impact on the election than on bigger elections,” Lathrom said. “In smaller elections, the vote counts more because there’s less votes.”
Marsha Goff said after running a political headquarters for many years, she knew how important it was to support candidates.
“I know how hard the candidates work,” Goff said.
Goff said she valued the quality of education in Eudora and kept that in mind when deciding how to cast her vote.
“I want someone who will keep the kids in mind but also keep the taxpayers in mind,” Goff said. “I don’t want a teacher to tell kids what to think. I want them to teach them how to analyze, think and decide for themselves.”
Eudora voter Paul Zimmer said his biggest concern when voting was trying to get the proper people in position to keep Eudora moving forward.
“I try to support the community,” Zimmer. “It’s your civic duty to take care of the community you live in and try to get the right people or who you think are the right people in the proper positions.”
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