Election results released 2 days after election, Democrats win total control of council

About 53 hours after the election, Bloomington residents finally have results for the contested city council races.

And it was a Democratic sweep — a big one. There isn’t a single Republican on the new city council, the first time this has happened in recent memory.

Democratic City Council incumbents Tim Mayer, Andy Ruff and Susan Sandberg were all reelected in the at-large race and Democratic incumbent Chris Sturbaum was reelected in District 1. Republican at-large candidates Jennifer Mickel and Ed Schwartzman were defeated, as well as Republican District 1 candidate Kristopher “KC” Baker.

Mayor Mark Kruzan and City Clerk Regina Moore were both reelected as well, but they ran unopposed, as did all five other members of the city council, all
Democrats.

Election Board members worked for two days to count the votes from the city’s municipal election after a series of problems in vote counting during Tuesday’s election.

“The delay has been the result of efforts to ensure, without a shadow of a doubt, that all vote tallies from each polling place are counted exactly as intended,” Monroe County Clerk Linda Robbins, Election Board President Jan Ellis and Monroe County Council President Julie Thomas said in a statement Thursday.

Monroe County Commissioner Patrick Stoffers gave an apology for the voting issues Thursday.

“In the case of counting the 2011 municipal election, it was the perfect storm in terms of things not going right,” Stoffers said. “The public was not well served by Monroe County government in this election.”

Stoffers also assured voters that after the votes were tallied, the county government would work to ensure this does not happen again.

— Zach Ammerman

Final Vote Tallies:

At-large race (pick three):
Tim Mayer (D) - 3,774 votes
Susan Sandberg (D) - 3,664 votes
Andy Ruff (D) - 3,054 votes
Ed Schwartzman (R) - 2,237 votes
Jennifer Mickel (R) - 1,672 votes

District 1 race (pick one):
Chris Sturbaum (D) - 521 votes
Kristopher “KC” Baker (R) - 311 votes

Source: Election Board President Jan Ellis