Williams takes most votes in Libby election; incumbents ousted in Troy election

Although city council challenger Peggy Williams wasn't really challenging anyone — three candidates were competing for three positions — the newcomer took home the biggest vote Tuesday night, according to results released by the Lincoln County Clerk and Recorder Office .

Williams received 227 votes, 28 percent of the 801 cast. Incumbents Bill Bischoff and Doug Roll split with 193 votes.

Stu Crismore, who dropped out of the election but not before he could retract his name from the ballot, received 88 votes, almost 11 percent of the total.

Ballots were tallied Tuesday night at 10:31 p.m.

In Troy, the challengers Lary Coryell and Don Banning swept the race and ousted incumbents Ron Pierce and Ron Rebo.

Coryell received almost 29 percent of the votes with 113 while Banning received almost 26 percent with 102 votes.

Pierce came in third with 79 votes and Rebo came after with 59 votes.

The results capped a relatively low voter turnout in Libby as voters trickled — not flocked — to the polling booths in the Ponderosa Room within the city hall building.

But given the anticlimactic scenario for the election results, maybe the surprise was that 60 voters already showed up by lunchtime. Only six had shown by 8:30 a.m., according to Clerk and Recorder Tammy Lauer.

Five voting judges there oversaw 12 voting booths, though no more than three were occupied at once from about noon to 2 p.m.

By 1:15 p.m. six more walk-in voters showed up, bringing the number to 66.

"Wow. This is a busy place," quipped Sergie Holoboff, who was walk-in number 70.

It may not have been busy, but the judges — Loretta Jones, Sheri Hakala, Roberta Profitt, Pat Walsh and Marie Perez — found ways to occupy their time. They read, they knitted, they joked.

They found that the 2008 Presidential election was a more popular topic of conversation among walk-ins than the city election itself.

Most of the comments focused on Hillary.

"And I wouldn't say they were good," one judge said.