Voters Elect Newcomer, Incumbent to School Board

St. Charles voters elected the two teacher-backed candidates, Sheri Bickmeyer, a mom of six, and incumbent Tim Bekebrede, owner of a construction company, to the St. Charles Board of Education on Tuesday.

Bickmeyer, a political newcomer, garnered the largest percent of the vote winning 1,390 votes (33.62). Bekebrede, who has served one, three-year term on the board, took 1,232 votes (29.72 percent)

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Marita Malone, a retired FBI Agent, won 827 votes (20 percent). Although he he was dropping out of the race, Wayne Oetting garnered 570 votes (16.20 percent). He served 13 terms on the board.

Bickmeyer and Bekebrede will be sworn in during the April 17 Board of Education meeting, which begins at 6:30 p.m.

In Francis Howell School District, St. Louis Post-Dispatch employee Eric Seider, a parent, beat incumbent Stephen Johnson by just 28 votes. Incumbent Marty Hodits won the largest percent of the vote taking in 27.37 percent.

Hodits was . Johnson said that was not an issue.

Election Authority Experiences Problems with Voting Machines

The St. Charles County Election Authority in the voting machines didn't work. The cards record the votes and are the first things tested. The Election Authority was able to get new memory cards out to those polling places before 7 a.m.

"They knew right away in the morning, so no one was denied their right to vote," Election Authority Director Rich Chrismer said.

During the vote count, Chrismer said they discovered memory cards in machines at two other precincts, one in O'Fallon and one near 94 and Kisker Road, also failed.

The staff manually fed the ballots into a new machine so they would be counted, which wasn't a big deal with such low turnout.

But during the November election, with an anticipated 90 percent turnout, manually feeding ballots could lead to delays.

"It takes longer and it'll be many, many hours longer if it happens in November," he said.

The Election Authority bid out the cost to buy 260 voting machines at $1.2 million. However, because the County only received one bid,

The county council didn't have enough votes to override the veto, so last Tuesday,

Chrismer told the council he's sick of "patching up these machines."

Unofficial Election Results

Board of Education (two, three-year terms)

With 22 precincts out of 22 reporting:

Marita Malone 827 votes, 20 percent

Wayne Oetting 670 votes, 16.20 percent

Tim Bekebrede 1,232 votes, 29.79 percent

Sheri Bickmeyer 1,390 votes, 33.62 percent

Write in Votes 16 votes, 0.39 percent

Orchard Farm School District Board of Education (two, three-year terms)

With 8 precincts out of 8 reporting:

Fred Semke 242 votes, 33.80 percent

Kevin Garcia 160 votes, 22.35 percent

Nancy Goeke 312 votes, 43.58 percent

Write in Votes 2 votes, 0.28 percent

Francis Howell School District Board of Education (two, three-year terms)

With 15 precincts out of 49 reporting:

Marty Hodits 3,403 votes, 27.37 percent

Stephen Johnson 3,020 votes, 24.29 percent

Eric Seider 3,048 votes, 25.52 percent

Marie Haupt 2,916 votes, 23.45 percent

Write in votes: 46 votes, 0.37 percent

Board of Trustees (two, six-year terms)

With 122 out of 122 precincts reporting:

William R. Pundmann 13,207 votes, 42.43 percent

AC Dienhoff  4,267 votes, 13.71 percent

Jean Ehlmann 13,470 votes, 43.27 percent

Write in votes: 183 votes, 0.59 percent

St. Charles Community College Board of Trustees (one, two-year term)

With 122 out of 122 precincts reporting:

William T. Lohmar Jr 16,395 votes, 98.86 percent

Write in votes: 189 votes, 1.14 percent