With a number of contested races decided locally, a greater percentage of Allen Countians voted than did voters statewide.
According to unofficial election results from Tuesday’s primary election, nearly 34 percent of the 8,580 registered Allen County voters did so.
Meanwhile, roughly 24 percent of the 1.7 million registered voters in Kansas took part in the primary vote.
Allen Countians had several undecided races, with multiple Republican candidates running for sheriff, two county commission seats, the Kansas House of Representatives and the state Senate.
In addition, Iola voters in wards 1 and 4 also cast ballots in the recall of councilmen Kendall Callahan and Ken Rowe. The turnout in Ward 1 was slightly more robust than the rest of the county. More than 42 percent of the voters from Ward 1 cast ballots. Conversely, the Ward 4 turnout was slightly lower, 32 percent, than the county average.
TUESDAY’S PRIMARY election also meant the end of the road for Rep. Bill Otto, R-Le Roy, who formerly represented most of Allen County in the Kansas House. Otto was defeated in the GOP primary by Peggy Mast in a three-way contest that also featured Willie Prescott.
Otto’s district was among those reconfigured in the latest round of redistricting handed down by a team of three federal judges.
Sen. Jeff King, R-Independence, whose Senate district also was pushed out of Allen County in the redistricting, won the GOP nod against another incumbent, Dwayne Umbarger of Thayer.
IN ANOTHER vote of local interest, former Humboldt Police Chief Daniel Onnen was favored by Woodson County Republicans in the sheriff’s race against incumbent Shannon Moore. Moore was a former Allen County undersheriff and sheriff’s deputy. She is the daughter of retired Allen County Sheriff Ron Moore.
