Brown County voted red in 2020 presidential election

The State of Minnesota is set for the highest voter turnout record in the entire country in the November 3 election.  According to Secretary of State Steve Simon, of the 4.1 million eligible voters in the state, 3.2 million voted (78%).  It is turning out to be a historic 2020 election!

While Minnesota as a whole stayed blue in the election, with 52.6 percent of voters casting ballots for Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris for president and vice-president and 48.8 percent voting for incumbent U.S. Senator Tina Smith, the conservative vote once again took the majority in Brown County.

Brown County voted red by a wide margin with 65.29 percent of voters casting ballots for Donald Trump and Michael Pence, versus 32.45 percent for Biden and Harris.  Smith, meanwhile received just 33.21 percent of the votes, versus 60.40 percent for Republican challenger Jason Lewis.  Republican Jim Hagedorn won another term as District 1 U.S. Representative, receiving 59.28 percent of the vote versus Democratic challenger Dan Feehan who received 35.63 percent of the Brown County vote.

In the state senatorial race, Republican Gary Dahms held onto his District 16 seat, receiving 72.24 percent of the county’s votes.  Paul Torkelson received 65.93 percent of the votes over DFL challenger Marinda “Mindy” Kimmel’s 33.95 percent to come back for another term as State Representative for District 16B.

Locally, Lowell Helget won another term as Mayor of Springfield, receiving 96.49 percent of the votes.  Nicholas Klisch won the Ward One City Council seat with 98.42 percent of the votes and John Ryan won the Ward Two City Council seat with 97.80 percent of the votes.  All three ran unopposed.  Incumbents Justin Roiger (17.99 percent) and Michael Vogel (19.39 percent) along with Sarah Groebner (17.18 percent) and Lori Groebner ( 17.17 percent) won seats on the District #85 Board of Education.

Absentee Ballots were a major issue with voters in the 2020 Election due, in most part, to the COVID-19 pandemic.  8,820 absentee ballots were cast in Brown County.  Counts in Springfield and the surrounding Brown County townships:  Springfield 343, Bashaw Township 133, Burnstown Township 156, Leavenworth Township 177,  North Star Township 163 and Stately Township 96. 

The Springfield Board of Education will meet on Thursday, November 12 at 5:30 p.m. to canvass the school election.  At the same time, in a different location, the Springfield City Council will canvass the city election.  Once results have been proofed by county election officials, the canvassing boards must approve the results before they are official.  Each municipality and school district has its own canvassing board to certify results in races. 

See more results in this week's issue of the Springfield Advance-Press.