OWENS WINS MAYORAL RACE, 2024 General Election Results
(UPDATE: THE NEWS LETTER JOURNAL BELIEVES THERE ARE ANOMOLIES IN THE VOTE TALLIES THAT THE WESTON COUNTY CLERK HAS REPORTED TO THE COMMUNITY, PARTICULARLY IN THE WYOMING HOUSE DISTRICT 1 RACE. We contacted County Clerk Becky Hadlock this morning to express concern that more than 1,000 votes were not counted in Weston County. She insists, however, that the vote totals in in the House District 1 race accurate, and will not acknowledge that an error may have occurred. We have asked Hadlock and County Attorney Michael Stulken to reveal when the Weston County Canvassing Board will meet to certify Tuesday's general election results, but have not received a response at this time. THE NEWS LETTER JOURNAL WILL CONTINUE TO UPDATE YOU ON THIS SITUATION AS MORE IS KNOWN.)
City councilman Tyrel Owens will move over a couple of seats at the table and take over as Newcastle’s mayor after defeating incumbent Pam Gualtieri in Tuesday’s election according to results provided by the Weston County Clerk’s Office. Owens followed up his victory in the August primary election and secured victory in the general election by receiving 743 votes to Gualtieri’s 574.
Owens’ decision to run for mayor meant change was coming to the Newcastle City Council with the addition of one new councilman, and Chris Kenney will be the newcomer after claiming 659 votes. Incumbents Daren L. Downs and Thomas A. Voss were able to secure another term with 681 votes and 483 votes respectively.
Other candidates included Kevin S. Kringlie at 460, Jeffrey Hall at 407 and Karl Lacey at 263.
Justin Norman (376) and Rick Rothleutner (353) were the only two candidates on the ballot for a pair of seats on the Upton Town Council.
School district races were also decided in both communities on Tuesday. With five board openings in Newcastle, current chair Dana Mann- Tavegia (1,514) will return to the board as the top overall vote-getter and fellow incumbents Billy Fitzwater (1,487) and Paul Bau (1,343) also won their bids for re-election. Tyler J. Mills (1,459) and Susan Pillen (1,354) were among the top five vote-getters as well and will join the Weston County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees. The unsuccessful candidate was Steven Gale, and he finished with 847 votes.
Curtis Rankin (568) and Diana White (591) were the only two candidates for a pair of available board seats in Upton and will serve on the Weston County School District No. 7 Board of Trustees.
Republicans Ed Wagoner (2,362) and Marty Ertman (2,225) will fill the two seats on the Board of Weston County Commissioners after winning the primary election in August and running unopposed in this week’s general election.
In the county’s legislative races, JD Williams ran unopposed for House District 2 and received 1,662 votes. Current House District 1 Rep. Chip Neiman also ran unopposed and received only 166 votes, but there were a staggering 1,289 undervotes recorded in that race according to the numbers released by Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock. By comparison, there were only 264 undervotes recorded in the House District 2 race.
Wyoming’s lone representative in the U.S. House of Representatives, Republican Harriet Hageman secured the win in Weston County with 2,908 tallies to beat out Democrat Kyle G. Cameron’s 309. Richard Brubaker had 103 votes and Jeffrey Haggit with 75.
Republican Sen. John Barrasso also easily secured the win in the county with 3,026 votes over Democrat Scott D Morrow who received 375.
In the U.S. presidential race, the Republican Trump/Vance ticket won handily by claiming 3,069 of the county’s votes over the 378 tallied for Democrats Harris/Walz and 47 for the Oliver/Ter Maat’s ticket.
Local voters also cast their vote on three different ballot propositions and one constitutional amendment, all of which passed.
Constitutional Amendment
A narrowly passed in Weston County with 1,712 for votes compared to 1,513 no votes, but adoption will ultimately depend on how the measure performs statewide.
“The adoption of this amendment would separate residential real property into its own class of property for purposes of property tax assessments. The amendment would authorize the legislature to create a subclass of owner occupied primary residences,” the ballot says.
Proposed ballot proposition no. 1 referencing lodging tax passed with 2,289 for votes over 1,062 against votes.
Proposed ballot proposition no. 2 referencing county sales and use tax passed with 1,881 for votes over 1,460 against votes.
Proposed ballot proposition no. 3 referencing additional mills for the Weston County Hospital District passed with 2,106 for votes over 1,232 against votes.
Weston County voters also cast their votes on whether to retain various justices and judges during the election.
Local voters chose to retain Justice Kate M. Fox with 2,272 yes votes over 733 no votes, and also voted to retain Justice John G. Fenn with 2,187 yes votes over 752 no votes.
County voters voted to retain Judge Matthew FG Castano with a total of 2,279 yes votes compared to 730 no votes, and Judge James Michael Causey will also be retained after he received 2,232 yes votes to 738 no votes.
Voters also chose to retain Judge Wendy M. Bartlett with 2,282 yes votes and 708 no votes, and Judge Lynda R. Bush will also continue to serve the community after she received 2,175 yes votes and 797 no votes.
Results are uncertified at the time of publication. Tallies included all eight Weston County precincts with a total of 3,533 total ballots cast.