The residents of Perry County have spoken on several key issues in the area during the General Municipal election.
According to Perry County Clerk Jared Kutz the turnout topped out at 22.49 percent of registered voters, with a total of 2,974 ballots cast. That number was right in line with what Kutz predicted before the election.
“This year we had 201 absentee voters, who I thought based on that we would be right around the same number,” Kutz said. “I figured that we would be between 21-23 percent.”
Even with the Perry County 911 dispatch sales tax question, the numbers went right in line with the previous April election in 2023.
“That’s the interesting part,” Kutz said. “When you go back to 2021 on the Joint Justice Center sales tax, it was less than 17 percent turnout. There’s a lot of things that can impact turnout.”
The most debated issue on the ballot was the Perry County Question pertaining to a half-cent sales tax to help fund 911 dispatch locally. Perry County voted “no” on that issue by a count of 1,567-1,364, which means that the Perry County Commission and City of Perryville will continue their efforts into a merger with St. Francois County as it pertains to 911 dispatch.
In other races, Gwen (Moore) Schweiss defeated Chris Francis 1,608-1,236 for the Perry County Memorial Hospital Trustees.
Probably the closest contested race on the ballot was the Perry County School District No. 32 Board of Education. Incumbent Kevin Bachmann received the most votes with 1,372, while Mellissa Hahn Carroll received the second most votes with 1.307. Incumbent Mark Gremaud earned the third most votes at 1,256 and Lindsey C. Unterreiner had 1,006.
The percentage of the votes ranged from 27.67-20.29 percent.
In the only contested Perryville Board of Alderman race, incumbent Curt Buerck defeated Christopher M. Wilson 190-175 for the Ward 2 seat. Deanna Kline won the seat for Ward 1 in an uncontested race. Kline will take over for Tom Guth, who decided to not run for re-election this year. Larry Riney will also remain as Perryville Mayor in an uncontested race.
In the race for the Oak Ridge R-6 School Board Ethan Siemer (7 votes) and Nathan Seabaugh (6 votes) defeated Andrew Seabaugh (1 vote) for the pair of spots.
The Mineral Area College Proposition passed by a vote of 6-1.
Kutz said that the election itself went off without many problems, although he was nervous for possible power outages with the storms the night before. However, the processes went off without a hitch.
“The election equipment does not use the internet, so that was not a concern at the polls,” he said. “However, at my office where we have access to the state voter registration system, we need internet for that. Thankfully when we got to the office, everything was back up and running. We were fortunate in Perry County. It was a pretty good day.”
