Oregon-Davis School Referendum Passes During Starke County Primary Election

Posted on May 9, 2018 
Author Jacque Ryan, WKVI

One major result that came out of Starke County’s primary election was that the Oregon-Davis School referendum passed, with 61.5 percent of voters voting in favor of it.

The public questioned posed to Oregon and Davis Township residents was:

“For the eight calendar years immediately following the holding of the referendum, shall the Oregon-Davis School Corporation impose a property tax rate that does not exceed twenty-nine cents of each one-hundred dollars of assess valuation and that is in addition to all other property taxes imposed by the school corporation for the purposes of funding current and future educational and operational expenditures?”

There were 447 people who voted yes and 284 individuals who voted no. More information about what O.D. school officials plan to do now that the referendum passed will be covered in future stories.

Additionally, in Tuesday’s Primary Election, incumbent Prosecuting Attorney Nick Boruff beat Richard Ballard on the Democrat ticket. He now will face off with Republican Leslie Baker for the position during the November General Election.

Other contested races included the Democrat County Auditor race where Rachel Oesterreich pulled ahead of her competitor Kasey Bula Clark and the Democrat Circuit Court Clerk race where Incumbent Vicki Cooley won over Kay Chaffins.

There were a few county council races that were also contested, including the County Council District 1, where Brad Hazelton won over Karl Swihart and County Council District 2 where Chuck Estok was the winner over Dale Conley.

All of the men running for those positions were listed as Democrats. Estok will go up against Republican Howard Bailey Jr. for the District 2 County Council seat in the General election.

In the Republican Railroad Township Trustee race, Mandy Thomason was beaten by Debra Wappel. Wappel will now face Democrat Roger Chaffins for the position in the General Election.

A little less than 23 percent of registered voters in Starke County cast a vote for this year’s Primary Election, with 3,765 voters accounted for out of the 16,446 residents who are registered.

Election officials provided the total absentee ballot numbers about 45 minutes after the polls closed and then delivered the final count after the results from all 21 reporting precincts were tallied.

Click the following link if you’re interested in seeing all the final results from Starke County’s 2018 Primary Election.