It was a different kind of primary this year due to COVID-19. Absentee ballots were far more numerous than in-person voting. County Auditor Betty Ellis reported that 349 people appeared to vote at the Red Shed Event Center in Clarion on Tuesday, which was Wright County’s only polling location due to health and safety concerns. By the end of the week, Ellis had received 1,718 countable absentee ballots back. Taking into account all the in-person votes and all the absentee ballots, here are the election results for the races:
In the race for U.S. Representative, District 4, Republican incumbent Steve King (525 votes) came out on top in the county over Randy Feenstra (457 votes), though King has already conceded on a state level. Bret Richards received 212 votes, Jeremy Taylor 84, and Steven Reeder 54. Democrat J.D. Scholten ran unopposed and will face Feenstra in the general election.
In the Democratic primary for US Senate, Theresa Greenfield, who ultimately won the race, took Wright County with 363 votes. Michael Franken came in second with 161 votes. Other vote-getters were Kimberly Graham with 71, Eddie J. Mauro with 67, and Cal Woods with 10. Greenfield will face Republican incumbent Joni Ernst who ran unopposed in the primary.
Dennis Guth, district 4 state senator, and Terry Baxter, district 8 representative, both ran unopposed in the Republican primary. Democrat Glenn Kiss was on the ballot unopposed and will face Baxter in November. Guth looks to run in the general election unopposed.
The only other opposed races on the ballot were for District 1 and 3 Wright County Supervisor positions. Both incumbents won those races. In district one, Rick Rasmussen came out over Jason Wessels, 788 votes to 564. Karl Helgevold took the district 3 race over Mike Boyd with 853 votes to Boyd’s 476.
Two other county races on the ballot were unopposed. Betty Ellis, Republican, looks to remain county auditor and Jason Schluttenhofer, Republican, will likely earn another term as sheriff.
On Tuesday morning, the county supervisors canvassed the vote and found no irregularities.
