While Russian hacking and recount efforts have engulfed the results of November’s presidential race and soured an election season that didn’t need any help in becoming more acidic, simplicity solved a dispute for Ogden Township seats Monday morning in the Riley County Commission Chambers.
Popsicle sticks were drawn.
“We are going to present to the (Riley County) Board of County Canvassers that they draw straws — i.e., Popsicle sticks — and those Popsicle sticks have the candidates names written on them,” county clerk Rich Vargo told the commission.
No voting machines. No wrangling. No exit polls. Just the definitive will of the randomly chosen Popsicle stick.
Vargo assured commissioners the practice is legal under state statute in these situations and received approval from the Secretary of State’s office in Topeka.
Two seats for treasurer and trustee were found to be tied with write-in votes following the Nov. 8 election with two votes apiece tying up the seat for treasurer 11 ways and two votes apiece tying up the seat for trustee nine ways.
Monday, that list was dwindled down to four candidates for treasurer and five candidates for trustee after some write-in candidates withdrew their names for consideration, according to election officials.
Commission Chairman Ben Wilson drew the Popsicle sticks out of a soup can and former Ogden mayor Jimmy Bond was selected for treasurer, while Felecia Zeedyk’s Popsicle stick was drawn by Wilson for trustee.
Bond was ousted as Ogden’s mayor in a 2010 recall vote after an administrative dispute with the city’s pool. Bond also made headlines in January of that year for admitting to a criminal past that included more than 10 years in Illinois and Ohio prison systems throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He served four years in Illinois for burglary and six years in Ohio for manslaughter.
Connie Miller is the current Ogden Township treasurer and Tamara Killham is its trustee. Neither filed the paperwork or paid the $1 fee to appear on the ballot.
