At least four women will join the previously all-male Oneida County Board after Tuesday’s election.
Meanwhile, incumbents in contested races had a mixed night, with five winners and four losers.
Voting for at least one county supervisor race could end in drama, as election-night results showed a tie between the top two candidates.
Women increase board presence
During the current term, no women are members of the 21-seat county board. That will change once new board members are sworn in.
Eleven women were on voter ballots on Tuesday and four claimed victory.
In city of Rhinelander districts, Moria King beat Sonny Paszak and Linnaea Newman defeated Bill Liebert. Outside the city, two races pitted women against each other, with Diana Harris winning over Mary Roth Burns and Debbie Condado beating Kathleen Cooper-Loher.
A fifth woman, Collette Sorgel, may join the Oneida County Board if she wins her race against Brian Slizewski. That race was precisely tied in initial results (see below).
Incumbents have mixed success
Of the 21 county board contests, this spring’s election featured 14 contested races. That’s the most in several years.
Nine incumbents faced challengers on Tuesday. Jim Winkler, Bob Thome, Scott Holewinski, Mike Roach, and Ted Cushing held their seats on the board.
Meanwhile, four incumbents were voted out of office. King defeated Paszak, Newman beat Liebert, Chris Schultz won over Alan Van Raalte, and Tony Rio defeated Mitch Ives.
District 13 ends in a tie
In District 13, a contest to represent the Three Lakes area, election-night results showed Sorgel and Slizewski each received 177 votes.
That result will first go to the Board of Canvass, which Oneida County Clerk Tracy Hartman said will start on Thursday morning. The Board of Canvass will review the results to ensure an accurate result.
If the candidates remain tied, Hartman said, the contest will be decided by a coin flip. Something similar happened in 2016, when Lisa Zunker and Jeff Vollmer tied with equal numbers of votes in District 19. Zunker won a coin flip to claim the seat on county board.
