Results of Limited Contests for Local Elections

Election Machine

Only several issues were before Prowers County voters for the November 5 General Election held yesterday. This marked the first all mail-in balloting which will become the norm for the state in the future.

Prowers County had 6,914 registered voters for this year’s Coordinated Election. Most of the decisions centered on school board members for Granada and Wiley. Five candidates ran for three at-large positions on the Wiley School Board with Greg Spitzer, Chad Krentz and Jeff Wells garnering the most ballots at 210, 171 and 134 respectively. Clint Bean received 125 votes and Tysca Lynne Black received 123.

Voters also decided on two issues through a yes/no vote as to whether the school board members could serve three consecutive terms of office with 215 voting no on 3A and 78 voting yes. The second question, 3B, asked the voters if they wanted to increase the Wiley Property Tax Mill Levy by $100,000 a year to be used for educational purposes in 2014. The voting on that question was 178 no and 114 in favor.

Granada School District voters decided between Ty Harmon and Carlos Huerta for the only contested seat on the board, with Harmon winning with 191 votes to 57 for Carlos Huerta. Natalie Musik and Rita M. Marquez were running for board seats with no opposition.

Statewide, voters focused on two tax issues. Amendment 66 in Prowers County was defeated by a vote of 2,410 to 659 in favor. The issue was a proposed tax increase to fund preschool through grade 12 in Colorado by $950,100,000 annually for the first fiscal year, followed by other amounts stipulated by amendments and statutes on educational funding. Proposition AA was approved in Prowers County by a vote of 1,715 in favor to 1,343 opposed on the question of a marijuana funded sale tax amounting to $70,000,000 of which $40 million would be spent on public school capital construction and a sales tax on enforcing marijuana sales and regulations.

By Russ Baldwin