EAST GRAND FORKS – The East Grand Forks City Council will soon have two newcomers as Karen Peterson has been declared as the winner of the at-large council seat according to City Administrator David Murphy.
Peterson was running for Ward 2, but she also encouraged people, via Facebook, to consider her as a write-in candidate for the at-large position.
Other winners of Tuesday’s council election are newcomer Ben Pokrzywinski for Ward 2 and incumbent Dale Helms for Ward 4.
This year’s City Council election was unique with Wards 2 and 4 featuring odd circumstances with incumbents due to a new ward map approved by the council earlier in the year moving some council members out of their current wards. The at-large council seat had no declared candidates for the seat, meaning it was decided based on write-in votes.
In a previous interview with the Herald, Murphy said in his time as city administrator in East Grand Forks, he’s never seen a ward with no declared candidates.
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Due to the new ward map Helms, who currently serves Ward 2, has been moved to Ward 4. Helms competed for the Ward 4 seat against incumbent Tim Johnson, who currently serves Ward 4. Helms won by 13 votes, for a total of 187 votes.
In the Ward 2 race Pokrzywinski, who received 245 votes, competed against incumbent Clarence Vetter, who received 219 votes, and Peterson, who received 103 votes. Vetter, who currently serves Ward 1 was also moved out of his ward because of the new map.
However, even though Vetter lost the Ward 2 race, Murphy said he has the option to continue serving in Ward 1 as his term in that ward concludes in 2024.
Votes for the at-large position took longer to tabulate since they had to be hand counted because it was completely based on write-ins.
“This is the longest we’ve ever had to declare a winner,” Murphy said Thursday.
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