New Hampton School Board, City Council to Get New Members

There will be a new member of the New Hampton School Board.

Unofficial results show challenger Kayla Smith winner of the At Large seat, winning a narrow race with incumbent Tim Denner. Smith got 244 votes to 229 for Denner, who has been on the School Board for the past 12 years.

While the election was last Tuesday (11.04), results from the Chickasaw County Auditor’s Office were delayed until Friday (11.07) because all voting for school board positions in the New Hampton and Turkey Valley school districts was conducted via write-in ballots after filing errors meant none of the candidates’ names appeared in the ballots.  Thus, it took extra time to verify write-in votes were acceptable for legibility and (relative) spelling accuracy and that names were entered for the correct positions up for election on the ballots.

In other school board voting, New Hampton’s Ryan Shawver and Adam Schwickerath, as well as Turkey Valley’s Katie Stika and Don Blazek, were unopposed for their respective seats. All have been re-elected.

There were also write-in votes for two seats on the New Hampton City Council, since neither incumbent Mindy Humpal nor Kalista Porath sought re-election and no candidates filed to run. Thus, the person with the most write-in ballots is the apparent winner, assuming they accept their position.

For the 2nd Ward seat held by Porath, Jeremy McGrath received two votes, with eight others receiving just one vote each. For the 4th Ward seat held by Humpal, Humpal received nine votes, with Luke Steele second with two votes.  If Humpal declines the nomination, Steele is next in line.

Winners of the write-in voting have until 10 days after the official election results are canvassed in which to submit a letter of resignation if they decline their nomination.