newsminer.com

The incumbents won the three GVEA board seats as co-op volunteers counted the ballots tonight, according to veteran GVEA-watcher and blogger Gary Newman.

He posted these details at http://gvea.blogspot.com.

Newman said the utility advisory committee volunteers opened the ballots and the final tally showed that the members retained Dan Osborne, Tom DeLong and Rick Schikora on the board.

The highest vote total was in District 2, where there had been some controversy over not nominating DeLong for another term. He gathered signatures and had his name placed on the ballot by petition.

There were 1,361 votes cast in DeLong's district, while in the other two districts there were 604 and 778 ballots cast, Newman wrote in a blog entry posted Tuesday night.

DeLong received 58 percent of the vote, to secure a second term, while Frank Abegg received 37 percent. In District 3, Schikora had 52 percent, while challenger Ken Rydberg received 48 percent.

Osborne ran unopposed, as the other nominee withdrew.

The turnout in the DeLong-Abegg race was about 23 percent, while in the Schikora-Rydberg race it was about 13 percent, Newman said.

He notes that roughly 10 percent of the ballots were not counted because of a lack of a signature of the member on the front of an inside envelope and suggests this perhaps this policy should be revised in future elections.

Interesting point for discussion.