Voters in Buchanan County went to the polls Tuesday to elect a St. Joseph mayor, St. Joseph School District Board Members, two at-large City Council seats and more.

Out of the 49,296 registered voters, 12,232 cast ballots for a 24.81% voter turnout.

In the race for St. Joseph Mayor, Bill McMurray received 5,520 votes for 51.60% of the votes. McMurray said the race was close throughout the night.

“Now I know how John Kennedy felt in 1960, it was pretty close,” McMurray said. “It looks like the numbers came through and I’m delighted that I was elected, I want to thank all the people who supported me and let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.”

The two St. Joseph Council member at-large seats were won by Brenda Blessing with 5,765 votes and Kent “Spanky” O’Dell with 4,363 votes.

Marty Novak won the St. Joseph Council Member District 2 seat with 656 votes. In district 3, PJ Kovac won with 925 votes. In district 4, Gary Roach won with 1, 718. In district 5, Russell Moore won with 1,188.

For the three St. Joseph School District Board Member seats, Seth C. Wright had 6,491 votes, Lute Atieh had 5,445 and Larry Koch had 4,684.

The St. Joseph Question regarding implementing a city seat belt ordinance received 6,529 “no” votes and 4,116 “yes” votes.

 

Other contested races in the area included the race for two seats on the Mid Buchanan R-V School Dist. Board. Shawn Pettegrew received 458 votes and Kim Smith received 442.

North Platte Co R-1 School Board Member seat winners were Kerry Brooke (Edlin) Hyde with 24 votes and Trace Stone with 14.

Click the link below for a full summary of the general election:

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