Newman retains United Power seat
Election results
The results of United Power’s Board of Directors elections are in. For the Mountain District, incumbent Rick Newman retained his seat for another term. Newman culled 2,859 votes to opponent Don Herod’s 2,118. In the East District, Tim Erickson was elected with 2,573 votes, defeating incumbent Dick McLean by 124 votes. Bill Berens, South District, won his first seat on the board with 1,819 votes. His opponents, Shawn Enriques and Ray Kilgore (incumbent), received 1,437 and 1,747 votes respectively. In the West, the seat vacated by the retirement of Lois Lesser, was won by Brian McCormick. He garnered 2,882 votes over Tom Janich’s 1,145 and Terry Sisson’s 962.
The election was concluded April 15th, following the 2009 Annual Membership Meeting. There were ten candidates this year. United Power members (customers) are allowed to vote for a candidate in each of the four districts, not just their home district. Ballots had been mailed to members of the electric company co-operative in March. Those who did not mail their ballots could drop them off at United Power offices up to the 15th. The count, completed at 8:45 that evening, tallied 5,202 votes out of a constituency of 65,000 potential voters.