With the results tallied overnight, several Sanilac County incumbents lost their longtime seats in Tuesday’s election while others held on.
In Sandusky, with three open seats on the city council, longtime incumbents Sandra Barr and Ginny Bissett sought re-election to the board. However, with six additional challengers vying for one of the open seats, only Bissett won her re-election bid with 367 votes. Newcomer Timothy Torp won a seat on the council with a total of 490 votes. And Sanilac County Emergency Manager Todd Hillman received the most votes of any of the eight candidates, with 678 ballots cast—handily electing him to one of the vacant positions.
Likewise, Marlette city council incumbent Stephen Quade lost his seat to newcomer Dan Edwards by a slim margin of about 51 votes.
In Minden City, newcomers Brian Main and Jack Lautner were voted to the council, with the decision also seeing incumbent Robert Rohn to be unseated.
In Lexington, Mayor Kristen Kaatz won her challenge against businessman James Gresock, while incumbent Kathleen DeCoster and newcomers Larry Adams and Christopher Cole were elected to fill the three village trustee seats.
In Deckerville, challenger Sarah J. Lewis defeated Ronald Ridley for his seat on the council, 166 to 105.
Mayor Julie Miller, despite being challenged by a write-in candidate, handily won reelection in Brown City, while the city selected Mark Vaerten to unseat incumbent Walter Robison on the council.
Turning to Sanilac County school board races, Daniel Gerstenberger has won back his seat on the Sandusky Community School Board, unseating incumbent Katie Tovar and joining David Heberling at the board table. Newcomer Tabitha Jensen finished with 1,303 votes, only nine votes behind Tovar.
For proposals, Sanilac County voters approved most but not all of the measures, with the village of Lexington rejecting the Headlee Override Millage, 418 to 234, and Speaker Township rejecting a road millage proposal by a margin of less than 40 votes.
A full list of Sanilac County’s election results can be found by clicking here.
