MABEL, Minnesota (STPNS) -- Local voters followed the national trend of the election last week and turned out in droves to cast their ballots for city, county and state officials. Incumbents did well in some races, while others faced the national attitude toward change and lost to new or returning candidates.

Following are the results for the races in the Mabel, Canton and Harmony areas, as well as the results for the District 31B race, State Senate and Representative races.

City of Harmony

With no candidates on the ballot for the city's mayor, Steve Donney was elected with 240 write-in votes. Linda Grover received 92 write-in votes and Ken Kiehne received 41. Current Mayor Dave Kingsley did not seek reelection.



Three candidates vied for two seats on the city council. Debbie Scrabeck was the top vote getter with 416 votes and R. Dan Tieffebacher received 287 to secure the two positions on the council. Allan Dahl received 218 votes and there were 49 write-in votes. The current council members, Linda Grover and Bob Smith, did not file for re-election to the council.

City of Mabel

Mayor Jim Westby was re-elected in Mabel with 204 votes against challenger Chad Loppnow who received 173 votes. There were six write-in votes.

Tracy Benson and Kirsten Wyffles were re-elected to their council positions with 312 and 258 votes respectively. There were 58 write-in votes.

City of Canton

Mayor Donivee Johnson ran unopposed in the city of Canton and secured her office once again with 143 votes. There were also 28 write-in votes.

Carl Ernst and Cindy Shanks will also be returning to their council seats with 107 and 130 votes respectively. George Hafner received 79 votes and there were also two write-in votes cast.

Mabel-Canton School Board

Incumbents Jane Hall and Mary Pat Kuhn were elected to the Mabel-Canton School Board with newcomer Teresa Jones. Hall was the top vote getter with 868 votes and Kuhn received 859, with Jones getting 724. Current board member Kaye Laitinen did not file for re-election.

Fillmore Central School Board

James Love, Ross Kiehne and Deb Ristau were elected to the Fillmore Central School Board Tuesday night.

Love was the top vote getter with 1,166 votes, followed by Kiehne with 1,131 and Ristau with 996.

A total of 11 candidates filed for the three seats up for election. Michelle Topness received 692 votes, Deanna Nolan 576, Gloria Keene 531, Paula Michel 446, Umbelina Cremer 441, Julie Teslow 365, and Leslie Christensen and Nancy Harrison, 252 each. There were also 10 write-in votes.

Commissioners

Thomas Kaase and Marc Prestby were elected to the Fillmore County Board of Commissioners.

Kaase won District 1 with 58.3 percent of the vote, outdistancing Karen Reisner, who received 41.42 percent. The incumbent, Stafford Hansen, did not file for re-election.

In District 3, Chuck Amunrud was the only candidate to file and he easily won re-election.

In District 5, incumbent Prestby won with 60.86 percent of the vote over Gary Gunderson, who had 38.89 percent.

District 31B

Greg Davids of Preston will resume his role at state representative for District 31B, in a narrow margin over incumbent Ken Tschumper (D-La Crescent).

Davids held the seat from 1991 to 2006 when Tschumper narrowly defeated him by 45 votes. This time the margin was larger with 407 votes separating the two- 9,873 for Davids over 9,466 for Tschumper. Davids carried both Fillmore (4,923 over 4,857) and Houston (4,950 over 4,609) counties.

U.S. Representative race

Statewide results showed Democratic incumbent Tim Walz (20,7749) the victor over Republican Brian Davis (10,9451) and Independent Gregory Mikkelson (14,904).

U.S. Senate race

Statewide results show Norm Coleman barely holding onto his lead with only votes 1,211,565 versus Al Franken's 1,211,359. Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie is preparing for a statewide recount, which will begin sometime after Nov. 18, when the state canvassing board certifies the election.

The difference between Coleman and Franken, which stood at 725 votes in Coleman's favor Wednesday morning, Nov. 5, has changed several times since then as officials have checked results and sent the adjusted figures to the state. For the most part, the margin between the two has narrowed with each change.

Over the weekend, Coleman tried to block 32 absentee ballots from heavily Democratic Hennepin County from being counted. A Ramsey County judge denied the request because of lack of jurisdiction.

Coleman's campaign said the ballots were not counted on Election Day or were not kept in sealed boxes. Ritchie maintains all votes are being properly counted.

Editor's note: Publisher Dave Phillips and Heather Gray of the Spring Grove Herald contributed information for this article.