Staff photo by Clay Schuldt Election Judges Kathleen Born (left), Sharon Pizel (center) and Vicki Quiring check voters in for the Primary Election at Redeemer Lutheran Church. This is the first year the election judges used a computer database to check in registered voters. By 10:30 a.m. 150 voters had already voted at this location. It was difficult to determine if this was a higher-than-average number since this was the first time two precincts were combined into one location.

BROWN COUNTY — Brown County Sheriff’s candidates Jason Seidl and Jeffrey Hohensee and Brown County District 5 candidates Lynn Anderson and Jeffrey Veerkamp survived the Primary Election Aug. 14.

With all 13 precincts reporting, Anderson of rural Springfield had 471 votes (39.25%) of the vote. Jeffrey Veerkamp of Comfrey followed with 404 votes (33.67%), advancing to the November General Election ballot. Jack Vogel got 173 votes and Derek Tonn 152 votes.

Vote totals are unofficial. Brown County voting results will be canvassed at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 17 in the courthouse commissioners’ room.

With all 32 precincts reporting in the Brown County sheriff’s race, Brown County Chief Deputy Jason Seidl had 3,306 votes (54.88%) and New Ulm Police Senior Investigator Jeffrey Hohensee had 1,605 votes (26.64%), advancing to the November ballot. Jason Fairbairn had 617 votes and Matt Ibberson had 496 votes.

Primary Election voter turnout was heavy with election judges reporting two to three times the number of voters compared to last year. Bashaw Township really saw a big turnout with 73 voters, compared to about a dozen usually showing up for the Primary Election. Springfield saw about five times as many Primary Election voters as last year, judges said.

With all 32 Brown County precincts reporting, Republican voters favored Tim Pawlenty and Michelle Fischbach with 1,574 votes (49.48%). Jeff Johnson and Donna Bergstrom followed with 1,438 votes (45.21%). Matt Kruse and Theresa Loeffler had 169 votes.

The DFL race was more one-sided with Tim Walz and Peggy Flanagan getting 1,828 votes. Lori Swanson and Rick Nolan got 453 votes and Erin Murphy and Erin Maye-Quade had 208 votes.

For U.S. Senate, Republicans favored Jim Newberger with 1,863 votes. Following were Merrill Anderson 571, Rae Hart Anderson 279 and “Rocky” Le La Fuente 154. DFL’ers favored Amy Klobuchar with 2.390 votes. Steve Carlson had 71 votes.

In the U.S. Senate Special Election, Republicans favored Bob Anderson with 1,501 votes. Karin Housley received 1,345 votes. The Democrats favored Tina Smith with 1,762 votes. Richard W. Painter got 240 votes.

For District 1 U.S. representative, the Republicans favored Jim Hagedorn with 2,348 votes. Carla Nelson got 512 votes. The Democrats favored Dan Feehan with 1,668 votes.

For attorney general, Republicans favored Sharon Anderson with 1,228 votes. Doug Wardlow got 1,067, and Robert Lessard had 624 votes. The Democrats favored Keith Ellison with 917 votes. Following were Tom Foley, 525; Debra Hilstrom, 425; Mike Rothman, 504; and Matt Pelikan, 152.

Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.