Carson City Deputy Clerk of Elections Emily Toups, front, and Clerk-Recorder Scott Hoen holding up signatures of poll workers to publicly thank them during the official canvass of the vote by the Board of Supervisors on June 21, 2024.
Photo by Scott Neuffer.
One lesson was clear during the Carson City Board of Supervisors’ Friday canvass of the June 11 Primary Election. Going through the final numbers and close races, Clerk-Recorder Scott Hoen kept saying, “Every vote counts.”
Supervisors unanimously accepted the canvass of the primary that, according to Hoen, saw 28.8 precent voter turnout and propelled some races to the general election in November.
November races will include one school board race between Michelle Pedersen (5,007 final votes) and John Henley (2,716 votes) and the mayoral race between incumbent Lori Bagwell (5,147 votes) and Jim Shirk (3,460 votes).
Races that skipped the primary were the Board of Supervisors Ward 4 race with Lisa Schuette and Lucia Maloney, a race in First Judicial District Court Department 2 between Kristin Luis and Mark Krueger and the School Board District 5 race between incumbent Mike Walker and challenger Ashliee Saucedo.
Melanie Bruketta clinched the seat for Justice and Municipal Court Department 2 in the primary with 56 percent (5,950 votes). The Board of Supervisors is expected to temporarily appoint Bruketta to the position at their first meeting in July to fill the seat until Bruketta’s new term starts next year.
Full primary results are available online: https://www.carson.org/government/departments-a-f/clerk-recorder/elections-department.
The canvass Friday showed that out of 40,271 active voters for the primary, 11,581 ballots were cast including 2,171 in-person votes during early voting, 1,842 in-person votes on Election Day, and 7,568 mail ballots. Of the latter, Hoen reported about half came through the post office and the other half through drop boxes at the community center and courthouse.
Hoen said his staff and other city departments worked to ensure a secure election. He highlighted fun features for those at the polls like popcorn, a photo booth, food trucks on Election Day and donations from local eateries that kept poll workers full.
And the primary wouldn’t have worked without 72 election workers, Hoen said.
“They did a phenomenal job,” he said. “I can’t stress it enough.”
Two of those election workers were Darcy Johnson and Tod Jennings, who attended Friday’s canvass. They had their own words of praise and thanks for city staff who worked the election.
“They rocked it,” said Jennings. “There’s no two ways to say it. They just rocked it.”