WTIP Election Night Roundup

The election turnout in Cook County was once again large with 77 percent of registered voters casting their ballots. The highest turnout was in Cascade Precinct 7 with 89 percent of the eligible voters voting.
 

The Cook County Schools ISD166 Operating Levy Referendum won approval from voters. The final vote total was 1,487 yes and 1,336 no.
 
In county commissioner contests, incumbent Janice Hall kept her District 1 seat defeating Bill Hennessy 315 to 134. In Commissioner District 3 Sue Hakes defeated Lloyd Speck 361 to 261. In the 5th District it was incumbent Bruce Martinson winning over Diane Parker 387 to 215.
 
The Grand Marais mayoral race saw write-in candidate Larry “Bear” Carlson defeat former mayor Mark Sandbo with 329 votes to Sandbo's 308. For city council the two winners were Bob Spry with 357 votes and incumbent Bill Lenz with 355 votes. Dave Palmer placed third with 332 votes.
 
For ISD166 school board, Mary Sanders ran unopposed in District 3 and got 463 votes. Jeanne Anderson got 328 votes in District 5. Challenger Michael O’Phelan had dropped out of the race but his name remained on the ballot and he got 217 votes. In ISD166 District 1, Deb White pulled 298 votes to Andrew Warren’s 116.

The 6th District Court race went to Mike Cuzzo, who topped Tim Costly with 60 percent of the vote. Locally the breakdown was a bit different with Tim Costly getting slightly more votes than Mike Cuzzo (1,283 to 1,240).
 
DFL 8th Congressional Rep. Jim Oberstar was defeated by Republican challenger Chip Cravaak. In Cook County however, Oberstar took more votes than Cravaak receiving 1,606 votes to Cravaak’s 1,152.
 
In Cook County, 6th District DFL State Sen. Tom Bakk easily defeated Republican Jennifer Havlick 1,910 to 923. He won district-wide. In Cook County, District 6A DFL Rep. David Dill handily defeated Republican Jim Tuomala 1,911 to 873. He also won district-wide.
 
The governor’s race Mark Dayton has a narrow lead of less than 10,000 votes over Republican Tom Emmer. The race may be headed for a recount as Minnesota law requires all ballots to be recounted if the margin of victory is less than one half of 1 percent of all votes tallied. In this case, a vote difference of around 11,000 or less would likely trigger a recount. Cook County gave the nod to Democrat Mark Dayton 1,673 votes over Republican Tom Emmer’s 878 and Independence Party candidate Tom Horner’s 292.

In the Secretary of State race, Cook County voted for Democrat Mark Ritchie over Republican Doc Severson. Ritchie won state-wide.
 
For State Auditor, Cook County went for Democrat Rebecca Otto over Republican Pat Anderson. Otto won state-wide.
 
For Attorney General, Cook County chose Democrat Lori Swanson over Republican Chris Barden. Swanson won state-wide.

All local election results are unofficial until certified by the canvass board on Friday, Nov. 5.

Check out a county-wide breakdown of the results.