Unofficial November 7th Election Returns, Crespin Wins Mayoral Race (Updated )

Kirk Crespin will remain the Mayor of Lamar, Colorado as the unofficial ballot return from the Prowers County Clerk’s Office from November 7^th, has Crespin with 773 votes, Patrick Christensen Jr. with 612 votes and Crespin’s other challenger, Bill Becker with 624 votes.  This will be Crespin’s third term as mayor.    That position is at-large in that all qualified residents could cast their ballot for their choice, while only those voters in their respective wards could vote for their specific city council candidates.  There are 7,104 active voters in Prowers County.  There were 3,350 votes cast.

The race for a City Council seat representing Ward One was won by incumbent Brent Bates with of tally of 435 votes, defeating Jay Brooke in an extremely tight race with 423 votes.  The seat will carry a four-year term.

The seat for Ward Two had four choices for voters with incumbent Gerry Jenkins receiving the most votes with 267 followed by David Zavala with 229 votes for the second seat.  As Jenkins received the most votes overall, she will hold a four-year term while Zavala will serve for two years.  Mike Bryant had 165 votes and Mike Duffy, who lost his council seat, had 209 votes.

Councilman Joe Gonzales will continue to represent Ward Three as he garnered 285 votes against his challenger, Shalah Mata, who offered a close race with 248 votes.  Gonzales will serve a four-year term.

The Lamar Re-2 School District had only one contested race, between Travis Hall who received 1,821 votes and Ellen Moria Martin, who received 503 to represent District C as a school board director.

Other positions on the board were not contested and as such, Lanie Meyers-Mireles will serve as four-year term for District B, Shannon O’Bryan for a four-year term for District D, Jacob Chamberlain returns as a director for four years, serving District F and Rick Robbins will serve a two-year term as a new board member representing District G.

Proposition HH, a measure designed to reduce property taxes for homes and businesses by using a portion of the capped state surplus was defeated in Prowers County by a substantial vote of 2,507 voting No, to 818 in favor.  It had largely been spoken against by the Lamar City Council and Prowers County Commissioners.

Proposition II was defeated by a vote of 1,720 to 1,565 in the county.  If approved, the measure would have allowed the state to spend tax revenues from cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products to invest $23,650,000 for the voluntary Colorado Pre-School Program.  As always, we acknowledge the efforts of the Prowers County Clerk and Recorder and the election team on their professionalism throughout the entire election period.  Once again, these are an unofficial count.
By Russ Baldwin