Mil levy and bond approved
DeLao, Skeet elected to boards

McKinley County Clerk Jaquline Sloan reaches for a bag and Steve Garcia picks up a ballot box from Dana Ray as Ray turns in the ballots from the Ramah voting precinct Tuesday night at the McKinley County Courthouse in Gallup. (Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent)

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

Rueben Aranda signs in Tuesday at the Cibola County Convention Center to cast his vote in the Grants/Cibola County School Board election. (Photo by Jerry Wilson/Independent)

GALLUP — Voters in the city didn't seem that receptive to new school taxes but enough voters came out in the county to pass both measures in Tuesday's school elections.

Joe DeLaO is returning to the school board, defeating Bill Bright handily and Johnny R. Thompson is also returning.

Gloria Mae Skeet edged former local education union president Thomas Payton in the closest race of the night to get on the University of New Mexico-Gallup advisory board. June Shack won as a write-in canddiate for the other position on the advisory board.

The turn-out was, as expected, low. In fact, it may have been one of the lowest in years with just over 7.8 percent of the registered voters going to the polls.

County Election Director Rick Palochak said the weather, especially in the northern portions of the county, may have had something to do with it. Snow began falling in the late afternoon.

But turnout throughout the county, even in those areas not hit by the bad weather, was dismal.

Only 2669 of the 34,182 registered voters went to the polls.

The request by UNM-G officials for approval to borrow $16 million in general obligation bonds was supported by a 2-1 vote in both the city and the county. The final unofficial figure was 1,657 for (65.2 percent) and 882 against (34.7 percent).

The mil levy question failed in a few city precincts and in the others it was barely holding its own but reservation and county voters, by better than a 3-1 vote, allowed it to pass. The unofficial total there was 1,413 for (56.2 percent) and 1097 against (43.7 percent).

The races for the school board seats for the Gallup-McKinley County School District did attract some interest.

DeLaO, who lost to Bright four years ago, returned the favor, getting 326 votes to Bright's 195 in the District 4 race.

Late election night, DeLaO said he had a lot of supporters out this past weekend going door-to-door and he says that may have made the difference.

Some of those volunteers were members of the local teacher's union and it's president, Brian Bernard, said he was happy to see DeLaO win, especially after some of the negative remarks that Bright had made about the union prior to the election.

The union had supported Bright four years ago but things have changed since then with DeLaO pledging to support teachers and students and maybe the union as well.

Thompson, running for District 2, is keeping his seat by getting 186 votes to 133 for Chee Smith Jr. and 110 for Charles Long.

Thompson led most of the night but with such a low turnout, it looked to be questionable up until the end.

Bruce Tempest, who also ran for re-election, had no opposition. He received 760 votes in District 5.

In Zuni Position #5, Pamelia S. Chimoni also had no opposition. She received 110 votes.

In the race for position 2 for the UNM advisory board, Skeet received 891 votes (39 percent), to 880 for Payton (38.5 percent) and 511 for Edwin J. Begay (22.3 percent).

The position 3 race saw two write-in candidates with Shack getting 45 votes to 25 for Ernest Mackel.