Bollinger County sheriff defeated

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- One incumbent was defeated while another won re-election in Bollinger County on Tuesday.

On a night that saw ballot counting delayed several hours after a machine malfunction led to hand feeding ballots into the counting machine, incumbent Sheriff Leo McElrath was defeated, and incumbent 2nd District Commissioner Steve Jordan won re-election.

McElrath received 803 votes, while challenger Darrin Shell, a Humane Society investigator, received 1,105 votes. Challenger Denny Cato received 442 votes. Shell will now face independent candidate Stash Petton in November.

In the 1st District Commission race, James L. Null won with 398 votes. The second-highest vote total was for Roger W. Vangennip, who received 305 votes. Three other candidates received less than 200 votes each, with two of them under 100 votes.

Jordan won re-election with 717 votes compared to 623 for challenger Nick Hendricks.

County Clerk Diane Holzum said the sensor on the ballot counter wasn't working. She and her staff hand-fed the ballots through the counter to get a count. In addition, the turnout was enough that Marble Hill's second ward precinct ran out of ballots during the day, and election judges had to hand count those. They also had to hand count the city's bond issue ballot, which was printed separately.

The first precinct, in at 7:10 p.m., took 40 minutes to tally, and by 8:30 only two precincts and the absentee ballots had been counted. Bollinger County has 14 precincts, and the count was final just before 11 p.m.

Pertinent address:

Marble Hill, MO