ELECTION NIGHT UPDATES: Griffith wins Cole County clerk seat to land in post-House
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
State Rep. Dave Griffith, a Republican who represents Jefferson City in the Missouri House, will now be Cole County's top election official.
Griffith took 66% of the vote for clerk, compared to 44% for Jeff Ahlers. Republican Steve Korsmeyer is retiring as clerk at the end of the year.
Jefferson City residents approved the extension of their capital improvements sales tax with 75% of the vote.
Cole County residents also went the same way as the rest of the state on Amendments 4 and 5, voting 80% "no" on Amendment 4 and 87% "no" on Amendment 5.
Chism wins Republican nomination for Callaway County presiding commissioner
Former Callaway County Sheriff Clay Chism won his party's nomination for presiding commissioner on Tuesday. He'll now move on to face a Democrat in November.
Chism earned nearly 45% of the vote in the three-way race with Rob Barnes and Larry Robinson, each of whom had about 30%. Chism received 3,300 votes. County voter turnout was about 37% of Callaway County's approximate 30,000 registered voters.
Republican Chism will move on to face Mike Conner in November.
Sharon Jones holds large lead in Columbia City Council race
Lobbyist Sharon Jones held a commanding lead in the Columbia City Council Ward 4 race as votes were still being tallied Tuesday night.
Jones had 1,270 votes to Dave Sorrell's 675 and Ryan King's 175 in the county clerk's last update a little before 9 p.m.
The "yes" votes for Proposition 1, a sales tax for public safety, held about a 200-vote lead over the "no" votes with about 10,000 ballots cast.
Capital improvements tax wins in Jefferson City; Bernskoetter wins presiding commissioner
ABC 17 News is projecting Jefferson City's capital improvements sales tax extension will win approval, state Sen. Mike Bernskoetter will win presiding commissioner and Cotton Walker will win reelection as a judge.
With 12 of 15 Jefferson City precincts in, the "yes" votes for Proposition 1 were in the lead with 75%. Meanwhile, Bernskoetter, with more than two-thirds of the precincts in countywide, had 80% of the vote in his race.
Judge Cotton Walker also had 80% of the vote.
Votes close in Columbia's Proposition 1 race among absentees
The yes and no votes for Columbia's Proposition 1 -- a sales tax that would benefit police and fire -- were neck-and-neck among ballots cast by absentee voters.
More than 5,000 absentee ballots were cast on the issue, with 2,865 yes votes to 2,502 no votes.
Brattin projected to win GOP nomination in Fifth District
State Sen. Rick Brattin will win the Republican party nomination for the redrawn Fifth Congressional District, Decision Desk HQ projects.
With about 11% of precincts reporting, Brattin had 40% of the vote in the six-way race for the nomination to take on Democrat Emanuel Cleaver in November. The next closest candidate was Boone County's Taylor Burks.
District 5 covered Kansas City under the old congressional map. Under a new map pushed by the White House and passed by the Republican supermajority in Missouri's General Assembly, the district now takes in large parts of rural Missouri, including part of Boone County.
Leads grow in Cole County races
The leaders are putting more distance between themselves and other candidates in the races for presiding commissioner and county clerk in Cole County.
With 10 or 29 precincts in, current state Sen. Mark Bernskoetter has about 70% of the vote in his race against Paul Dupuis. Current state Rep. Dave Griffith has about 60% of the vote in his race against Jeff Ahlers for the Republican nomination for county clerk.
No Democrats are running for those seats.
Amendment 5 projected to fail
Amendment 5, which would allow the General Assembly to phase out income tax and replace it with other tax sources, is projected to fail.
With about 7% of precincts in, 85% of voters had said "no" to the amendment. Decision Desk HQ projected the amendment would fail.
Amendment 1, which continues a sales tax for parks and conservation, and Amendment 2, which creates the position of elected assessor in Jackson County, are both projected to pass.
First ballots counted in Cole County
With absentee ballots counted, Mark Bernskoetter holds a commanding lead in the presiding commission race against opponent Paul Dupuis.
Term-limited House member Dave Griffith, a Republican who represents Jefferson City, held a commanding lead in his race for county clerk.
With just a few precincts reporting, voters had overwhelmingly chosen to extend a half-cent sales tax for capital improvements in Jefferson City.
Amendment 4 projected to fail
Amendment 4 is projected to fail, according to Decision Desk HQ.
ABC 17's election data provider projected that Amendment 4, which would make it harder to pass initiative petitions statewide, would fail, with 85% of votes that were counted at the top of the night against it.
Amendment 4 would require initiative petitions to pass each of the state's eight congressional districts to take effect.
Lines reported at Boone County polling places
Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon said a little after 7 p.m. that lines had formed at some polling places.
Lennon said her office had received reports of lines, but she didn't have specifics about which polling places were affected. The lines were not long, Lennon said.
Under the law, people standing in line when polls are supposed to close at 7 p.m. can still vote.
Turnout was at about 37% at 7 p.m. That number does not count mail-in absentee ballots, she said. Lennon predicted turnout around 40%.
Major statewide ballot issues such as Amendments 4 and 5 and local issues such as Columbia's Prop 1 public safety sales tax helped to drive up turnout for a typically sleepy August midterm primary.
