Election results

Thirty percent of registered voters in Howell County turned out for the August primary last week, casting a total of 8,549 ballots. 85% of voters chose to vote a Republican ticket; nearly 11% voted in the Democratic races; nearly 3% voted nonpartisan, and 0.36% voted Libertarian. 

 

Contested local races

In contested local races, incumbent Republican Lisa Durnell retained her party’s nomination for the seat in the Missouri House of Representatives with 4,085 votes to Travis Smith’s 2,972, a win of 15 points. Durnell will face Democrat JoJo Stewart in the general election in November. Stewart was unopposed on the Democrat ticket, receiving a total of 776 votes. 

 

For Associate Circuit judge, Heath Hardman emerged victorious with 2,590 votes, 37% of the vote. Lyndell Beard received 26% of the vote; Larry Burton II received 15%, and Marty Simpson received 15%. 

 

Republican Willow Springs Township committee positions were contested. Jim Harper received 70% of the vote to Devan Daniels’ 29.7%. Karen Harper received 64% of the vote to Emilee Daniels’ 36%. 

 

The Democrat Howell Township Committeewoman race pitted Jan Robertson against Sarah Wittenauer. Wittenauer emerged the winner by a margin of 11 votes, 231 to 220. 

 

City of West Plains proposition

2,255 voters in the city of West Plains voted on a proposed one-percent sales tax increase in West Plains, and nearly 83% voted no. The proposition failed by 65 points. 

 

"The voters have spoken, and we respect their decision,” commented West Plains Mayor Mike Topliff. “Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote and participate in this election. I was especially encouraged by the strong voter turnout and the level of community engagement throughout this process.”

 

"While this proposition was not approved, the City of West Plains remains committed to serving our community and engaging residents in conversations about our shared vision for the future and how we can achieve it together.

City operations and services will continue as normal, says a release for the city of West Plains. 

 

Constitutional Amendments

When voters showed up at the polls across the county, they were voting on proposed Amendments to Missouri’s Constitution. Nearly all ballot submitted weighed in on these four questions. Here in Howell County, voters matched the statewide results, passing Amendment 1, renewing a tax for the Department of Conservation, and Amendment 2, regarding Jackson County’s assessor position. 

 

Joining voters across the state, Howell County overwhelmingly rejected Amendments 4 & 5. 

 

Amendment 4 failed 21% yes to 78% no, and 5 failed 11% yes to 88% no. 

 

Statewide, Amendment 5, which sought to phase out Missouri’s income tax and allow lawmakers to replace the lost revenue with broader sales taxes, drew just 16.6% of the vote last Tuesday — the third-lowest level of support for any constitutional amendment since Missouri adopted the initiative process in 1908, reports The Missouri Independent. Amendment 4, the proposal to require citizen-led constitutional amendments to win statewide and in all eight congressional districts, received 19.7%.

 

Both failed in every county in Missouri. 

 

According to the Independent, House Majority Leader Alex Riley said Republicans won’t try to put Amendment 5 before voters again in the same form, but he still believes Missouri would benefit from eliminating its income tax.

“Those no-income-tax states are crushing it, literally, from every metric right now, and the high tax states are not,” Riley told Rudi Keller of the Independent. “And I would like to be one of those states that is doing much better than we have been.”

 

Riley, of Springfield, is in line to become House speaker if he wins reelection.

 

Reporting in the Independent indicates Democrats will use the historic defeat of these two Amendments to argue Republicans are out of touch with voters. Keller’s article quotes Russ Carnahan, chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party, “Amendment 4 and Amendment 5 will be used as symptoms of the problem. The folks responsible for this are the Republican politicians in Jefferson City. Clearly, they’re not listening, and so it really opens a door of opportunity for us. We have to take it. We have to build those connections, but we’ve also got voters that are open to this message.”