Voters oust county sheriff, Majhanovich re-elected

There’s a new sheriff in town come Jan. 1.

Sweetwater County voters decided to elect Democrat Mike Lowell to head the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office, ending Republican Sheriff Rich Haskell’s two-term stint in the office. According to unofficial results from the Sweetwater County Clerk’s Office, Lowell won the election with 4,781 votes, beating Haskell’s 4,227 votes and independent candidate Dave Johnson’s 2,312 votes.

On Lowell’s Facebook campaign page, Lowell thanked his campaign supporters and said he is both humbled and honored to be voted in as Sweetwater County’s next sheriff.

Sweetwater County Coroner

Sweetwater County voters decided to keep Democrat Dale Majhanovich as its coroner for another four years.

Majhanovich faced fierce competition from Republican challenger J.R. Alexander, but won election to his fifth term.

Election results show Majhanovich with a commanding lead over Alexander, receiving 7,423 votes to Alexander’s 3,850.

Sweetwater County Attorney

Daniel Erramouspe will serve as the new Sweetwater County Attorney in January. The Republican candidate defeated Democrat Bob Reese for the position with 7,633 votes. Reese received 3,439 votes while another 28 write-in votes were cast.

Other county offices

Many of the county offices were uncontested. Officials including Sweetwater County Assessor Pat Drinkle, Clerk of District Court Donnalee Bobak, Sweetwater County Clerk Dale Davis, and Sweetwater County Treasurer Rob Slaughter won re-election to their respective offices and were not challenged for their positions.

Judges

Along with candidates for local office, voters also had a chance to vote on retaining judges serving in a variety of courts both locally and state wide. All of the judges serving in the county were retained by voters.

District Court Judge Richard Lavery received 8,086 votes in favor of his retention and Judge Nena James received 6,576 votes in favor of her retention. The two district court judges received 2,077 votes and 4,040 votes respectively opposing their retention.

Circuit Court Judge John Prokos received 7,679 votes in favor of his retention and Judge Craig Jones received 7,525 votes in favor of his retention.

Prokos received 2,166 votes opposing his retention while Jones received 2,090 votes in opposition. Circuit Court Judge Frank Zebre, who serves in Lincoln County,but is within the third judicial district, received 7,143 votes from Sweetwater County favoring his retention, with 2,339 against.