First female Commissioner after historic San Juan County election

Nearly 4,000 voters participated in the first mail-only election in San Juan County history. And it was an historic election as, for the first time, a Native American woman was elected to the San Juan County Commission.
Rebecca Benally was elected to fill the commission seat currently held by Kenneth Maryboy. Benally, a Democrat, had a 347-vote advantage over Republican challenger Manual Morgan. Benally was the choice of 614 voters, while Morgan had 267 votes. Write-in candidates Kenneth Maryboy and Roger Atcitty combined for 297 votes.
Benally will not be the only new face among the elected officials. Two incumbents were defeated by challengers and three other county officials did not seek reelection.
Long time County Attorney Craig Halls was defeated by challenger Kendall Laws by nearly 800 votes. Halls was first elected as County Attorney in 1986, which was about the time that Laws was born.
In addition, Shelby Seely defeated incumbent Howard Randall by nearly 400 votes.
Randall has served as the Assessor for the past 12 years.
John David Nielson will become the new San Juan County Clerk after defeating challenger Dawn Shaw by nearly 800 votes. Nielson will replace Norman Johnson.
The new County Recorder is David Carpenter, who defeated challenger Tina Corrao by approximately 100 votes. The recorder race was the closest of the six contested local races. Carpenter will replace Louise Jones.
Another new elected official is County Surveyor Sam Cantrell. Cantrell ran unopposed in the race to replace retiring surveyor David Bronson.
Incumbents who were not opposed in the general election and who will serve for another term include Commissioner Phil Lyman, Treasurer Glenis Pearson, and Sheriff Rick Eldredge.
The San Juan School Board will remain the same after incumbents Elsie Dee and Nelson Yellowman were reelected. Yellowman defeated challenger Jean Nimrod by 70 votes, while Dee turned back a write-in challenge to win by 122 votes.
In state races, Sean Reyes was elected Utah Attorney General, Mike Noel was re-elected to the Utah House of Representatives and Mark Huntsman was elected to the state school board.
All judges in the judicial retention races were retained, including Seventh District Judges Lyle Anderson, Mary Manley and Scott Johansen.
Two proposed amendments to the Utah Constitution were defeated, but a third, to align the Governor and Lt. Governor races, was approved.
With approximately 100 ballots arriving in the mail after the election, total voter participation in the mail-in election will exceed 4,000 by the November 17 election canvass.
The voter turnout represents more than 63 percent of active voters.
While the election was deemed a success, the number of voters participating in the election actually dropped from the most recent similar election. A total of 4,172 voters participated in the last midterm election in 2010.
Voter participation varied widely by precinct compared to the 2010 race. In total, the number of voters was up by more than 200 in the Bluff, Montezuma Creek and Aneth precincts. It was down by nearly 200 votes in the Oljato precinct alone.
In order to adjust the number of races every other year, three positions were for a six-year term, including Treasurer, Surveyor and Assessor. They will all be four-year terms in the future.