Mid-term election: Kahl defeats DePoppe for Sheriff, McGartland named county treasurer

 

By ERIN SANSON
Enquirer~Democrat Reporter

Several seats were up for grabs in Macoupin County this election. Voters cast their ballots for Sheriff, County Treasurer, and County Board Members in Districts 4, 6 and 7. They also voted for the State wide election, deciding the Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, Comptroller, U.S. Senator, U.S. Representative, and voting on and amendment to the Illinois Constitution.

Macoupin County Sheriff

Shawn Kahl won his third Macoupin County election for Sheriff. He ran as a Democratic candidate, opposed by Gillespie Police Chief Jared DePoppe. The race was close with Kahl having a slight majority with 53 percent of the votes to DePoppe’s 46 percent. Over 17,820 Macoupin residents came out to the polls to vote for Sheriff. Kahl won the votes in North Otter, Virden 1 and 2, Girard 2, Nilwood, South Otter, South Palmyra, Western Mound, Bird, all five Carlinville precincts, Shaw’s Point, Honey Point, Brushy Mound, Polk, Chesterfield, Shipman, Hilyard, the three Gillespie precincts, Mt. Olive 1, 2 and 4 and he won Staunton 3.

DePoppe won the votes in Cahokia 1 and 2, Staunton 1,2 and 4, Mt. Olive 3, Dorchester Township, the three Bunker Hill districts, Brighton 1, 2 and 3. He also won the three northwestern most districts in the county, Scottville, Barr and North Palmyra.

There was a margin of only 1,418 votes between the candidates.

Kahl retains the title after previously serving eight years.

“The amount of support has been overwhelming,” Kahl said. “I really appreciate it. Going forward, our entire department will strive to keep getting better, keep working hard like we’ve been doing and do everything we can to keep the public safe while making sure everything else [such as the grounds and buildings] is maintained.”

“I want to thank all those who voted for me,” DePoppe said. “You’re faith in me has been truly humbling. The voters of the county have spoken and I respect their decision. We worked very hard and it was a close race. Congratulations to Sheriff Kahl on his win.”

DePoppe will continue to serve as Chief of the Gillespie Police Department.

County Board Seats

Mark Dragovich remained in his county board seat in the fourth district but received only 36 percent of the votes. Republican candidate Ross Adden received 38 percent of the votes and will join the board. Kellie Vesper also ran as a Democratic Candidate and received 24 percent of the votes out of the 2,493 cast in that district.

Robert Quarton, who has been a county board member since 1994, was ousted Tuesday night. Aaron Stayton remains in the seat he was appointed to following the retirement of Bill Harding earlier this year. Quarton lost his seat to newcomer Leann Barr. Barr ran as a Republican and earning 29 percent of the vote, while Quarton, the only democratic candidate in the District Six contest, received 23 percent.

In District Seven. both current board members remained in their seats. Bernard Kiel received 46 percent of the votes while James Ibberson received 31 percent. Christine Bruley-Hill ran as a Democrat for the seventh district but could not beat the two incumbents with only 22 percent of the vote.

County Board members following the 2022 midterm are:
District 1: Ryan Kilduff (D) and Holly Klausing (R)
District 2: Jon Payne (R) and Gordon Heuer (R)
District 3: Kristi Dunnagan (R) and Matthew Acord (R)
District 4: Mark Dragovich (D) and Ross Adden (R)
District 5: Larry Schmidt (R) and John Blank (R)
District 6: Aaron Stayton (R) and Leann Barr (R)
District 7: Bernard Kiel (R) and James Ibberson (R)
District 8: Robert ‘Tony’ Wiggins (D) and Harry Starr IV (R)
District 9: Todd Armour (R) and Charles Siegel (R)

County Treasurer

The County Treasurer position was also up for grabs. There were two candidates – Democrat Roger Anderson, the sitting treasurer and Republican candidate Lillian Amber McGartland. McGartland won the election receiving 62 percent of the votes. Voters cast 17,623 ballots in the treasurer race, 10,948 of them went to McGartland. Anderson received 6,675 votes.

U.S. Congressional Elections

While the Democratic candidates came out ahead in the Illinois elections the voters of Macoupin County decided against them.
Tammy Duckworth won the U.S. Senate seat in Illinois. She received only 35 percent of the votes in Macoupin County. Kathy Salvi, the Republican candidate for Senate had 62 percent of the votes in Macoupin County. Overall, Duckworth won 56 percent of Illinoisans votes.

In the newly drawn Congressional District 13, Nikki Budzinski beat out Regan Deering with 57 percent of the votes across the seven county districts. The Associated Press called the race in Budzinski’s favor at 12:09 a.m. on Wednesday. Staying on trend for Macoupin County, Deering had the vote of 63 percent amongst county residents. Budzinski received only 36 percent of the Macoupin vote.

State Elections

That trend continued in the state election results. JB Pritzker was declared the winner of Illinois Governor race, receiving 55 percent of all Illinoisans votes. His opponent, Darren Bailey, received 42 percent of the votes throughout Illinois and Libertarian candidate Scott Schulter received the remaining three percent. Two-thirds of Macoupin County residents voted for Bailey, while only 30 percent voted for incumbent Pritzker. Similar votes were cast for State Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Comptroller and State Treasurer. The Republican candidates each received over 60 percent of the votes while Democratic candidates hovered around 30 percent. Typically, less than three percent of the votes went to third party candidates or write in votes.

Voter Turnout

Macoupin County had a 57 percent turnout for the midterm elections. There are 31,612 registered in the county and 18,196 of them came out to cast their votes. Bird Township had the highest percentage of voters turnout with 175 of 224 voters, or 78 percent, of registered voters going to the polls. The lowest voter turnout was in Staunton Two, where only 48 percent, or 390 out of 811 registered voters, came to the polls. The voter turnout for the 2022 election was higher than turnout for the 2018 midterm election. In 2018, there were 32,151 registered voters in the county and only 18,458 voted, or 57.41 percent. This year, though there were fewer registered voters, the voter percentage was higher with 57.56 percent of voters coming out in 2022.

A proposed amendment to the Illinois Constitution was also on the ballot this election. The amendment guarantees the right to collective bargaining in the state constitution. The vote was tight in Macoupin County but ultimately, the nays won. No votes numbered 8,401 against the Yes voted of 8,228, a difference of only 173 votes. The amendment did pass with the state wide votes with 60 percent of Illinois citizens voting for the amendment.