Chad Lundquist/Nevada Appeal Fred Aldridge ponders his selections at the Dayton Community Center during midterm election voting Tuesday night.
With nearly 20 percent more votes in Lyon County, Nevada native and sheriff's Lt. Allen Veil beat former Los Angeles Police sergeant Charlie Duke to become sheriff, while Senior Deputy Attorney General Bob Auer beat Deputy District Attorney Stephen Rye for the office of District Attorney.
"I'm feeling really good about this, very satisfied. I'm humbled, of course. It's nice to see the support from the people and the confidence they have in me and the people that work for us," said Veil who learned the election results surrounded by family in Yerington.
When all precincts were in, Veil's final count was 8,554 votes to Duke's 5,922.
"Lyon County will have dysfunctional law enforcement for the next four years. This isn't being a sore loser, this is being a realist," said Duke from the Peppermill in Reno where he learned of the election results. "If the people of Lyon County don't wake up they are going to watch their kids get killed and watch crime go through the roof, because Allen Veil doesn't have a clue."
Duke, who lost his first bid as sheriff to incumbent Sid Smith in 2002, said he will not run again for sheriff.
Veil, who said he was proud he ran a clean campaign, said he is eager to take the reins of the department for which he's worked the last 16 years.
"The face of the sheriff's department is going to change. There are a lot of things that we have in the works and a lot of progress that we are going to make," he said. "It's an exciting time. I'm really looking forward to the next four years."
The Lyon County District Attorney race went to Deputy Attorney General Auer who beat Rye by more than 1,000 votes, with Auer receiving 7,045 votes to Rye's 5,932.
"I'm feeling great. I just want to thank my campaign manager, Robin WIlliams-Auer, who also happens to be my wife. She put up with me for the last seven months, and I want to thank our son, Ben, for being a great supporter. And I want to thank all the voters and all my friends," Auer said.
"And I really want to congratulate Steve Rye and the Rye family and commend them on how professional and clean and gentlemanly the race was. I've worked with Steve in the past, and I hope I'll get to work with him in the future. He's a great lawyer and I'm going to work at trying to keep him in the office. I hope he'll continue to work with Lyon County. We were very fortunate we had the race with Steve Rye. It was a really nice campaign."
Current Lyon County District Attorney Leon Aberasturi, ran for and won election as District 3 district judge defeating incumbent Wayne Pederson 55 percent, or 11,799 votes to 44.9 percent, or 9,652 votes.
• Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.
Lyon County
Unofficial final results
•15,138 total votes cast; 67.57 percent of all registered voters
Sheriff
Allen Veil 8,554; 59.09 percent
Charlie Duke 5,922; 40.91 percent
Commissioner District 2
Larry McPherson - R 7,890; 54.21 percent
Charles Lawson - D 6,664; 45.79 percent
Commissioner District 5
Phylllis Hunewill - R 11,913; 100 percent
Assessor
H. Michael Glass - R 12,183; 100 percent
Clerk-Treasurer
Nikki Bryan - R 12,436; 100 percent
District Attorney
Robert "Bob" Auer - R 7,045; 54.25 percent
Stephen B. Rye - R 5,942; 45.75 percent
Recorder
Mary Milligan - R 12,258; 100 percent
Nonpartisan offices
District Judge District 3
Leon Aberasturi 4,027 - Churchill
7,772; 56.09 percent - Lyon
Wayne Pederson 3,568 - Churchill 6,084; 43.91 percent -- Lyon
School Trustee
District 2
Anthony Corrales 6,577; 56.16 percent
Joseph Slabbinck 5,135; 43.84 percent
School Trustee
District 4
Charles Shirley 6,710; 54.73 percent
Lynda Nickerson 5,551; 45.27 percent
Public Administrator
Jason McLean 8,075; 69.18 percent
Franklin Roller 3,597; 30.82 percent
Walker River Justice of the Peace
Michael Fletcher 1,938; 53.2 percent
Dennis Milligan 1,705; 46.8 percent
Silver Springs GID (4 seats)
Chrysti Barbee 286; 15.16 percent
Robert Wells 283; 15.01 percent
Kay Bennett 271; 14.37 percent
Robert Freeman 248; 13.15 percent
Raymond Johnson 235; 12.46 percent
William Holler 211; 11.19 percent
Richard Lindermann 182; 9.65 percent
Matthew Dufresne 170; 9.01 percent
Mason Valley Fire Protection Director (3 seats)
Jeffery Page 1,202; 29.45 percent
Timothy Ogle 1,075; 26.34 percent
Jim DeChambeau 984; 24.11 percent
Tony Smith 820; 20.09 percent
South Lyon Hospital District Trustee (3 seats)
Beverly Hanson 2,331; 26.92 percent
Deborah Giomi 2,322; 26.82 percent
Scott Huntley 2,295; 26.5 percent
Sandra Jurey 1,711; 19.76 percent