Emery County residents turned out in force to cast their ballots in the Nov. 6 general election. Emery County went with the rest of Utah in their support for Mitt Romney for president. One issue the locals said they have with Pres. Barack Obama is his war on coal which is the lifeblood of Emery County and surrounding areas. Mitt Romney received 3,743 votes to 569 votes for Pres. Barack Obama.
Gov. Gary Herbert received 3,499 votes to 727 for Peter S. Cooke.
In their first chance to vote for or against Jason Chaffetz for Congress the county voiced their support for him with 3,403 for Chaffetz and 834 for Soren Simonsen.
Long time Senator Orrin Hatch received the support of the county. Sen. Hatch received 3,350 votes to 882 votes for Scott Howell. For Attorney General John Swallow received 3,276 votes and Dee Smith received 783 votes. For state treasurer Richard Ellis received 2,972 votes to Christopher Stout, 976 votes. For state auditor John Dougall received 3,026 votes to 919 votes for Mark Sage.
In the Emery County commission race, Republican challenger Ethan Migliori defeated incumbent commissioner Laurie Pitchforth by 2,804 votes to 1,581 votes.
In the state senator race David Hinkins, incumbent received 3,713 votes to 657 for Michael Binyon. In state representative district 69 incumbent Christine Watkins received 125 votes to 256 votes for Jerry Anderson; in district 70 incumbent Kay McIff received 2,934 votes to 712 votes for Wayne Hoskisson.
In the school board races Sam Singleton defeated Bruce Funk by 515 votes to 378 votes in the Clawson/Ferron area. Nanette Tanner received 794 votes running unopposed in the Orangeville area. Laurel Johansen running unopposed received 751 votes for the Castle Dale area. For the board of education at the state level; Wendy Simmerman received 1,031 votes with Dixie Allen receiving 2,559 votes.
In the ballot initiatives the county voted on Amendment A for 1,822 and against 2,176; on Amendment B there were 2,930 votes for and 1,233 votes against.
The vote totals for Emery County will be canvassed on Nov. 19. The provisional ballots will be added at this time. All early voting and absentee ballots were added to the precinct totals. In Emery County, the voter turnout was 69.60 percent which according to clerk/auditor Brenda Tuttle is about average for the county.
Emery County Election results
"Adam Brinkworth, social science sterling scholar checks out the election results."