Municipal elections saw the return of familiar faces to the Baldwin City Council, while the school board will have one new member.
Overall voter turnout for Douglas County was about 19 percent, Deputy of Elections Keith Campbell said.
While this is a significantly lower voter turnout rate than the 2005 municipal elections, the total number of votes cast in Baldwin City was roughly the same in 2007 as it was two years ago, according to the Douglas County Clerk’s Voting and Elections Division’s unofficial results.
In the race for City Council, incumbent Tony Brown, Baker University professor of psychology, received 21 percent of the vote, and both former council member Kenneth Wagner and incumbent Ted Brecheisen received 18 percent of the vote, earning each of them a seat.
Incumbent Nancy Brown received 16 percent of the vote, followed by Kenneth Niehoff with 15 percent and Jennifer Hayes with 9 percent. School board incumbents Alison Bauer, Scott Lauridsen and Blaine Cone were unopposed in their bids for re-election.
In the race for the open school board position seven, Joshua Mihesuah garnered 55 percent of the vote, defeating Baker alumna Teresa Arnold, who received 44 percent of the vote.
Tony Brown was surprised by the results.
“It’s very humbling to have that level of support,” he said.
Sophomore Jason Mock, who ran unsuccessfully in the 2005 general election and the 2007 primary election for City Council, said the outcome was as he expected.
“I was surprised by the spread of the vote. I didn’t predict Tony Brown being as popular as he was, but I was not surprised by the general outcome.”
Brown’s focus as a returning member of the City Council will be parks and recreations.