city-council-too-close

The At-Large race in the 2019 Pella City Council election remains too close to call after Tuesday’s vote, with the final results unlikely to be determined until the Marion County Board of Supervisors meeting early next week. According to preliminary results from the Marion County Auditor’s Office, Liz Sporrer leads incumbent Tony Bokhoven by eight votes on a 957-949 tally. Chris Meyers, the other candidate in the race, has 329 votes to his name. Marion County Auditor Jake Grandia reported to KRLS News Wednesday that there are currently 27 outstanding absentee ballots remaining in the county, and that nine of those are from the City of Pella incorporated area, and eligible to be counted in that race. The Marion County Auditor’s Office will make a determination of which of those nine ballots are eligible to be counted based on their postmark date and other factors, and a final count will be brought to the Marion County Board of Supervisors for certification on Tuesday, November 12th. Based on the results currently in the other City of Pella races, Don DeWaard will be the next mayor of Pella, Calvin Bandstra the next Ward 2 representative, and David Hopkins the next Ward 4 representative, and their terms will all begin on January 1st, barring an issue brought to the Board of Supervisors next week.