The city of Oskaloosa, along with the rest of Mahaska County, held their municipal city elections on November 7th. The result of the ballot race was an interesting one.
The mayoral race included incumbent Mayor David Krutzfeldt and his opponent Jeff Lorentzen. As ballots were tallied late into the evening, the numbers came in from each ward in Oskaloosa and Krutzfeldt slowly inched past Lorentzen. Eventually claiming the number one spot with 56.3{99cd714f394079a7f0ed2eb1518dd31342ff3ceb5b6c267c3ad8acd5b5a7d66b} of the votes.
“I’m finishing up year number 8, so this is the fifth mayoral election that I’ve been in. Successful one, let’s put it that way,” said Mayor Krutzfeldt.
In total, Krutzfeldt received 105 absentee votes and 471 votes collectively from the four wards. Lorentzen received 43.5{99cd714f394079a7f0ed2eb1518dd31342ff3ceb5b6c267c3ad8acd5b5a7d66b} of the total votes with 58 absentee votes and 387 collective votes from the four city wards. There were only two write-in votes.
Out of a growing city population of nearly 12,000 residents, a mere 1,023 weighed in on the mayoral election. According to Population.us, the city of Oskaloosa has an estimated population of 11,600. That means approximately 11.34{99cd714f394079a7f0ed2eb1518dd31342ff3ceb5b6c267c3ad8acd5b5a7d66b} of the population turned out for the vote this city election.
“If we are away from the general election there’s a lesser turn out. I believe there is some complacency where people just assume that things will just happen the way they like,” Krutzfeldt said in response to the low voter turnout. “But I understand that some folks just aren’t particularly interested or they haven’t done the research, so they don’t know who to vote for. So they stand back for that. I guess I won’t argue with them, its their own decision to make.”
It was a short six week campaign, but Mayor Krutzfeldt has one thing to say to voters that got out to the polls to vote. “Just a big thank you. Going through an election is always a humbling experience but a big thank you to the folks that expressed their confidence in me for the next two years.”
