Monday's Internet Edition, October 06, 2008.
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| The official Rabbit Fest rabbit sits atop a firetruck during the annual parade Saturday morning. After a wet and cold opening, the weather turned out great for the final two days of the festival. – Photo by ADRIENNE DALE |
News editor
- Charlie Youngs and R. Ray Gatewood are headed for a runoff for the Place 5 seat in City Council following Saturday’s general election.
Early totals were posted Saturday evening. The official canvass of the ballots will be held on May 25 during a special city council meeting at 6 p.m. at City Hall.
John Gallen was re-elected in Place 3 with a total of 661 votes. Write-in candidate Roger “Odie” O’Dwyer, who received 186 votes, had challenged Gallen.
In a close race for Place 4, James Stockman won the seat with 474 votes. Jim Kanzenbach received 436 votes.
The position was open since Charlotte Heinze was unable to run again because she had held two consecutive terms on council.
Fred Harris held the Place 5 seat on the council, and was also unable to run again due to multiple terms.
This year, candidates vying for Harris’ seat had four names on the ballot.
One candidate for Place 5 would have had to win 51 percent of the vote to win the position. Since no one received more than half the votes, Gatewood and Youngs will face off in a June 19 election.
Youngs had received 281 votes, while Gatewood received 290 votes.
Also running for council Place 5 was Buddy Southards with 181 votes and Jean Durham with 158 votes.
With approximately 19,000 voters registered in Copperas Cove, only 943 ballots were placed for this election.
“It is very discouraging that so low a percentage of the registered voters are interested in their local government,” Mayor Bradi Diaz said.
Diaz said this year had a very low turnout compared to years before when there was usually a turnout of about 2,000 votes tallied.
Diaz said that the city has advertised as much as possible to get the word out to Covites about the election.
“We have used every means available to advertise,” Diaz said, “We have even done more advertising than we are required to do.”
Diaz has said that council has been looking at ways to try and get the public more interested in taking part of elections and their city government.
“I really don’t think we could have done anything different,” Diaz said, “We just have to hope that people will take an interest in their city government.”
Diaz said that the reason there has been so little voting might be due to the fact that the Copperas Cove Independent School District was able to cancel their elections because there were no challenges to the school incumbents who filed and are automatically back in office.