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Yankton City Commission certifies April 8 election; Spencer, Birch and Conkling led vote totals
Summary
At a special April 11 meeting, the Yankton City Commission formally canvassed the April 8 municipal election, approved the results and noted a roughly 20% city turnout. Commissioners Spencer, Birch and Conkling were the top vote-getters; newly elected members will be sworn in at the first May meeting.
YANKTON, S.D. — The Yankton City Commission on April 11 completed the official canvass of the April 8 municipal election, approving the results and recording turnout that city staff said was about 20%.
City Finance Officer Lisa presented the canvass at a special meeting called to certify the city results. “Per state law, we are required to do an official canvas within 5 days of the election,” Lisa said as she summarized vote counts from three vote centers and absentee ballots.
The commission approved the canvass by voice/roll call vote. Commissioners present — Benson, Brunick, Sarta, Honnoff, Minor, Mosher, Villanueva and Weber — voted to accept the reported totals; Mayor Schromm was absent and excused. The meeting opened with a nomination and unanimous approval to name Commissioner Steph Mosher mayor pro tem for the special meeting while the mayor attended a funeral.
Lisa told commissioners the city used three vote centers for this election: City Hall (Vote Center 1), the North Fire Station (Vote Center 2) and absentee voting (Vote Center 3). She reported 641 voters at City Hall, 887 at the North Fire Station and 575 absentee voters, for a total of 2,103 ballots cast by city voters. Lisa said the city turnout was approximately 20%, compared with just over 10% the previous year; including the school-district registered voters reduced the overall participation to about 16%.
Vote counts reported by Lisa, given in the order the names appeared on the ballot, were as follows by center and combined totals:
- Vote Center 1 (City Hall, 641 voters): Conkling 254; Higgins 49; Hoover 183; Dimmer 186; Spencer 352; Birch 286; Hummel 206; Bixler 304; Grant 70. - Vote Center 2 (North Fire Station, 887 voters): Conkling 411; Higgins 60; Hoover 231; Dimmer 182; Spencer 461; Birch 442; Hummel 252; Bixler 41; Grant 87. - Absentee (575 voters): Conkling 188; Higgins 37; Hoover 130; Dimmer 165; Spencer 352; Birch 340; Hummel 174; Bixler 28; Grant 60.
Lisa then read combined totals for each candidate: Conkling 853; Higgins 146; Hoover 544; Dimmer 533; Spencer 1,165; Birch 1,068; Hummel 632; Bixler 373; Grant 217. She noted the top three vote-getters were David Spencer (22.14%), Brian Birch (20.3%) and Bill Conkling (16.21%).
Commissioners thanked election workers and staff for administering the election and absentee voting; City Finance Officer Lisa singled out city finance staff Devin Gullickson and Kayla Giggy for extra work on absentee processing. Commissioners also discussed an upcoming change in state law: effective July 1, cities and school districts must combine elections into either June or November and the commission must decide by January whether the city will move to one of those consolidated dates.
The commission noted the newly elected commissioners are expected to be sworn in at the first May meeting; staff said the April meetings remain open to the new members if they wish to attend beforehand.
The meeting concluded after approval of the canvass and a brief call for any public comments; none were offered on items not on the agenda.
