New Mayor Elected in Stevensville

Brandon Dewey has lost his re-election bid to the position of Stevensville's Mayor. When the votes were counted Tuesday evening, he was defeated by Steve Gibson in the mail-in municipal election. Gibson had 394 votes to Dewey's 267.

The unofficial final tally was released by the Ravalli County Election Department. In the Stevensville council races, Stacie Barker defeated Paul Ludington in Ward One by a vote of 165 to 157, while Cindy Brown was unopposed in Ward Two and had 218 votes. Stevensville's Ward Three position was won by Sydney Allen with 207 votes to Bob Michalson's 108.

In Hamilton, Mayor Dominic Farrenkopf was unopposed and won re-election with 1,028 votes. Incumbent Kristi Bielski outpolled Dean Knudsen 261 to 223 in Ward One, Rod Pogachar won re-election in Ward Two with 194 votes to Kathy Dexter's 143. And, in the closest race of the evening, Darwin Ernst became the new Ward Three councilperson, defeating Kenneth Allen 168 to 162.

In Darby, Ruth Lendrum was unopposed for Mayor and gathered 110 votes. No one ran for the open positions in Ward One and Ward Two in Darby. There were a few write-ins in each race.

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County Election Administrator Regina Plettenberg said that 1,971 votes were cast in the three towns. One odd result was in the Hamilton City Judge election. Ryan Archibald had resigned earlier this year, but his name was still on the ballot. He polled 869 votes, one of the larger totals of the night. The current city judge, Royce McCarty, was very recently appointed and will be on the next city election ballot.