According to the Secretary of State’s office, absentee ballots that have been postmarked by the election and received by a county within seven days of the election will be accepted and counted. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals required that absentee and mail ballots arriving after 8 p.m. on Election Day must be segregated. However,
the Court did not order that the ballots be rejected. Pending further litigation, these ballots will be included in the 2020 election results.
Cooreman elected mayor
Pam Cooreman appears to have won a special election to fill out the remainder of Anthony Dimmers’ term.
Unofficial results show that Cooreman garnered 56% of the vote in defeating incumbent Tony Peterson, 530-405.
“I’m so excited to help lead this council, and together we can work on making Tracy great,” Cooreman said Tuesday night.
Cooreman is no stranger to the mayor’s seat. As a council member serving a four-year term that began in 2014, she was appointed mayor in January 2017 after Steve Ferrazano accepted an appointment as a judge in the Fifth District.
Peterson was appointed mayor in March following the departure of Dimmers, who defeated Peterson 2018. He replaced Mayor Pro Tem Kou Thao, who served immediately following Dimmers’ departure.
Peterson’s current stint as mayor is his second, as he also served from 2013-2016.
Tracy Council ready to expand
Elbow room next year will be more limited at Tracy City Council meetings, as five residents, including two newcomers, have been elected to serve on the council.
Unofficial results from Tuesday are: George Landuyt 556, Kou Thao, 549, Seth Schmidt 500, Ron Koopman 499, Dave Tiegs 451, Ken Witt 422, Reuben Sundheim 328, Rosemary Martin 197, Rhonda Fredericks 165, Dan Jensen 137, Jan Arvizu 132. Landuyt, Thao and Tiegs currently serve on the council.
There were 690 in-person ballots cast in Tracy, and 3,943 total votes cast for the council (voters were asked to vote for five candidates). There were seven write-in votes.
The Tracy City Council on July 13 passed a resolution to award the top three vote-getters the four-year terms, and the fourth and fifth vote-getters the two-year terms. Tracy residents in 2018 voted 440-274 to expand by two the number of council members — a vote that reversed one eight years earlier that decreased the size of the council by two members.