The unofficial results in the highly-anticipated 2022 election for Carbon and Emery counties have been released.
In Carbon County, there were seven seats that were open for election, four of which ran unopposed. The unopposed candidates were Seth Marsing as the County Clerk/Auditor, Christian Bryner as County Attorney, Wayne Woodward in the Carbon School District (CSD) Board 4 Position and Nicole Hobbs in the CSD Board 5 Position.
County Commissioner incumbents Larry Jensen and Tony Martines were both candidates to take their seats once again. Lita Riley and Ed Chavez vied for the seat against Jensen, while the Commissioner/Surveyor position, which was held by Martines, also had Fuzzy Nance and Paul Riddle as candidates.
Commissioner Larry Jensen received the majority vote for this election at 56.44%, followed by Ed Chavez at 33.70% and Lita Riley at 9.86%. For Commissioner/Surveyor, Tony Martines received the most votes with 3,630 (58.55%) while Fuzzy Nance received 2,018 (32.55%) and 552 were counted for Paul Riddle (08.90%).
For the Carbon County Sheriff position, Jeffrey Wood was running for re-election and was joined by opponent Zachary Palacios. The contest was neck-and-neck, with Wood coming out on top at 52.52% and Palacios following close behind at 47.48%.
Similarly, there were seven open seats in Emery County. Running unopposed in Emery County were Michael Olsen as the County Attorney, Brenda Tuttle as the Clerk/Auditor, Jordan Leonard as Commissioner A and James Winn in the Emery School District (ESD) Board Position 4.
For Commissioner B in Emery County, Keven Andrew Jensen and Doug Stilson were in the running. For Emery County Sheriff, candidate Tyson R. Huntington was joined by opponents Shaun Bell, Johnathon “Boe” Minchey and Keaton Cowley.
Jensen received the most votes for the Commissioner B seat with 3,521 votes, or 97.32% of the votes. Stilson, who was a write-in, received 97 votes, or 2.68%.
Huntington won the majority of the votes for Emery County Sheriff with 49.16% of the votes in his favor. The other sheriff candidates were Minchey with 26.01%, Bell with 19.69% and Cowley with 5.15%. The three latter Emery County Sheriff candidates were write-ins.
Katie Player and Royd F. Hatt were in the vying for the ESD Board 5 Position. The contest was tight, but ultimately Hatt came out on top with 482 votes (58.64%) while Player had 340 votes (41.36%).
Continuing, Christine Watkins ran unopposed to be re-elected to her seat for Representative of District 67. Congressman John Curtis led the vote at 74.23% against his opponent, Glenn Wright. Senator Mike Lee was also in the lead in terms of votes at 60.14% against opponents Evan McMullin (36.45%), James Arthur Hansen (02.24%) and Tommy Williams (01.17%).
Finally, in the Judicial Seventh District, voters were asked if Don Torgerson and George Harmond should be retained. Votes were 75.42% in the affirmative for Torgerson and 77.10% for Harmond, meaning both will be retained. Voters were also asked if Paige Petersen should be retained in the office of Justice of the Supreme Court of Utah, to which 83.09% voted yes.