Green overtakes Wilson-Edwards in Cedar City mayoral race as Iron County releases updated totals

Voting booths inside City Council chambers, Cedar City, Utah, Nov. 2, 2021 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

CEDAR CITY — With the Iron County Clerk’s office counting more than 3,000 additional ballots on Wednesday, a clearer picture has emerged regarding who won in the various municipal races.

According to the updated vote totals announced by County Clerk Jonathan Whittaker via email Wednesday night, challenger Garth O. Green has now opened a 119-vote lead over incumbent Mayor Maile Wilson-Edwards in the race for Cedar City mayor. 

In Tuesday night’s preliminary results, Wilson-Edwards had led Green by just 16 votes.

Whittaker said an undetermined number of ballots still remain outstanding, including those that were mailed by the Nov. 1 postmark deadline but have not yet arrived at the county offices, along with some provisional ballots cast during in-person voting. Another update will be made on Friday, he added, with the final, official canvasses taking place starting next week.

As previously reported, an issue related to the printing of the ballots caused most Iron County residents to not receive their ballots in the mail until approximately one week before Election Day.

Whittaker said approximately 2,200 voters dropped off their ballot envelopes in person at the various designated drop boxes on Tuesday. Those ballots, along with hundreds more that arrived in the mail on Tuesday and Wednesday, were among those that were tabulated on Wednesday and added to Tuesday night’s preliminary totals, he said.

A ballot drop box inside City Council chambers, Cedar City, Utah, Nov. 2, 2021 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

Whittaker noted that 12,203 votes have now been counted county-wide, representing a turnout of approximately 43% of the county’s 28,452 registered voters. Tuesday night’s preliminary totals had 9,064 votes counted, meaning an additional 3,139 votes, or roughly one fourth of the overall total, were added to Wednesday’s updated totals.

Besides the Cedar City mayoral race, only one other Iron County race saw a change in results between Tuesday and Wednesday. In the race for Parowan City Council, Rochell Topham still has the most votes with 577, but David Harris has passed Sharon Downey by just two votes for the second available seat. Wednesday’s totals show David Harris with 511 votes to Downey’s 509, making that race still too close to call.

In the lone county-wide issue on the ballot, Iron County School District’s proposal to issue $69.5 million in general obligation bonds to pay for new school facilities, has passed. Wednesday’s updated totals show the margin at 786 votes, or 53.7% to 46.3%.

Following are the updated results for Iron County’s various races. Note that the percentage totals shown have been updated so that they are calculated on a per-race basis, rather than as a percentage of all ballots cast. They still may not add up to exactly 100% due to rounding.

Iron County School District Bond Proposal

For the issuance of bonds 5,713 53.7%
Against the issuance of bonds 4,927 46.3%

Cedar City

Mayor

Maile Wilson-Edwards 3,526 49.2%
Garth O. Green 3,645 50.8%

City Council (two seats)

R. Scott Phillips 4,513 35.3%
Carter Wilkey 2,351 18.4%
Ronald Riddle 3,345 26.2%
Derek Morton 2,543 19.9%

Brian Head

Mayor (unopposed)

Clayton Calloway 44 100%

Town Council (two seats)

Shaun Kelly 21 25.9%
Dennis D. Van Nostran 30 37.0%
Marty Tidwell 30 37.0%

Enoch 

Mayor

Geoffrey L. Chesnut 805 54.5%
Cam Findlay (write-in) 652 44.1%
Write-in (other) 21 1.4%

City Council (two seats)

Robert E. Bromley 386 14.7%
Katherine A. Ross 920 35.0%
Richard A. Jensen 732 27.8%
Leonard M. Correa 592 22.5%

Paragonah

Mayor

Daniel K. Abbott 102 45.3%
R. Todd Robinson 123 54.7%

Town Council (two seats)

Jessica (Jessie) Stewart 35 8.5%
Roger Jacobson  82 19.9%
Tom Milk 173 41.9%
Travis Isaacson 123 29.8%

Parowan

Mayor 

Vickie L. Hicks 262 23.2%
Preston B. Griffiths 289 25.6%
Mollie Halterman (write-in) 576 51.0%
Write-in (other) 3 0.2%

City Council (two seats)

Sharon Downey 509 24.8%
David M. Harris 511 24.9%
James M. Harris 455 22.2%
Rochell Topham 577 28.1%

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.

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