Borho, Van Blaricum win county races

It was well into Wednesday morning when the Pratt County Clerk's office could deliver totals in the Pratt County Commission District 2 race.

Challenger and Primary Election winner Glenna Borho won the battle gathering 818 votes while incumbent Dwight Adams took in 445 votes.

The only other contested county race was for county attorney. Incumbent Ken Van Blaricum had an overwhelming 2,728 votes to former Pratt County Attorney Tom Black's vote total of 914.

All other county races were uncontested in the election.

The reason the counting took so long was because Adams ran a write-in campaign after losing to Borho in the Primary Election race by just four votes.

While the voting machines can quickly count the pre-printed portion of the ballots, all write-in votes have to be hand counted and that can take a long time.

Pratt County Clerk Sherry Kruse said she and her staff were going to take as long as necessary to get the write-in vote correct so they wouldn't have to do it again.

Borho stayed up to find out the results the came in well after midnight. But the late hour didn't dampen the enthusiasm for her victory.

"I'm pretty excited," Borho said. "I'm thrilled to have won and by a two to one ratio."

Her election was a mandate from the people and she was looking forward to the challenge of being a commissioner, Borho said.

She is anxious to work with the county department heads, the county commissioners, elected officials and the people she new represents. Improving county roads, improving office procedures and lowering the tax burden are items she wants to tackle as she takes office.

She offered thanks to those who supported her with emotion, yard signs and finances.

Van Blaricum didn't have to wait so long to learn the outcome of his race with Black. His three to one victory over Black was a result of good support from the community.

He said he didn't run a real aggressive campaign but just let people know his stance on the issues. He appreciates all the support he got during the campaign and was anxious to continue working with the citizens of the county.

"I want to serve them as their county attorney," Van Blaricum said.

He wants to continue his partnership with law enforcement to get the best results with county offenders. His goals include promoting public safety plus continuing to work on punishment and rehabilitation for offenders. He also wants to improve office efficiency.

One element of all the races was the number of write-in votes. Every office had write-in votes and all those ballots will have to be counted by hand. Kruse said it was not unusual to have a lot of write-in votes in a general election because people like to fill in the blank lines.

Of the county's 5,974 registered voters, 3,815 cast ballots for 64 percent. Kruse said she thought the total would be higher since it was a presidential election.

The constitutional amendment on boat taxation passed 2,096 in favor of the amendment while 1,355 voted against the amendment in the county. Across the state the amendment passed with 541,912 yes votes against 468,249 no votes.

In the presidential race the county selected Romney and Ryan over Obama and Biden by a three to one margin. The state also selected the Republican team with a 60 percent margin over the Democratic ticket with 38 percent of the vote.

Election Results

County Commissioner District 2

Glenna Borho 818

Dwight Adams (write-in) 445

County Attorney

Ken Van Blaricum* 2,728

Tom Black 914

County Commissioner District 3

Joe Reynolds* 1,136

Write-in 90

County Clerk

Sherry Kruse* 1,136

Write-in 23

County Treasurer

Amy Jones* 3,255

Write-in 24

County Register of Deeds

Sherry Wenrich* 3,037

Write-in 33

County Sheriff

Vernon Chinn* 3,181

Write-in 89

State Senate District 33

Mitch Holmes - Pratt Co. 2,711

District Total Unavailable

Write-in 331

State Representative District 113

Marshall Christmann - Pratt Co. 2,839

District Total Unavailable

Write-in 45

Constitutional amendment watercraft tax

Yes 2,096

No 1,355

U.S. Representative District 4

Mike Pompeo* - Pratt Co. 2,582

District Total 158,212

Robert Tillman - Pratt Co. 787

District Total 79,480

Thomas Jefferson - Pratt Co. 184

District Total 15,587

President

Obama and Biden* - Pratt Co. 974

State Total 427,918

Romney and Ryan - Pratt Co. 2,730

State Total 678,719

* Incumbent