While voters in many state and local races had close contests on Aug. 2, races in the Verde Valley were mainly uncontested.
Cottonwood City Council
Incumbent Councilwoman Debbie Wilden and Lisa DuVernay ran unopposed for three four-year seats.
Wilden received 2,134 votes, or 49.24% while DuVernay received 2,001 votes, or 46.17%.
Stephen DeWillis, a write-in candidate, needs at least 129 votes to appear on the November ballot. He garnered 147 votes, or 3.39%.
Clarkdale Town Council
Alicia “Lisa” O’Neill received 976 votes and Laura F. Jones received 899 votes. The candidates ran unopposed for two four-year seats.
Jerome Town Council
Eight candidates, or 1.71% of the population of the town of Jerome, ran for five open seats.
For the five seats on the Jerome Town Council, incumbent Vice Mayor Christina “Alex” Barber, Councilwoman Jane Moore, Mayor Jack Dillenberg and Councilwoman Sage Harvey won the top four spots with 132, 131, 114 and 102 votes respectively, followed by Sonia Sheffield with 96 votes.
Charles Romberger had 44 votes, Susan Gregory 28 and Steven Schutz 21.
Camp Verde Mayor
Those with the highest number of vote counts in Camp Verde are merely awaiting Yavapai County’s final tally of provisional ballots before declaring formal victory.
Two candidates are running for the mayor of Camp Verde, a two-year term.
Incumbent Dee Jenkins received an overwhelming majority of mayoral votes at 2,201, or 74%, while her opponent, hotel operations manager Reason Shipley received 757, or 25%.
Jenkins stated, “It is humbling to know that so many Camp Verde voters support me and approve of the job I am doing.”
Camp Verde Town Council
While the mayoral race saw such clearly defined numbers, the council race saw much tighter numbers, with four candidates vying for three open seats, all four-year terms.
Among the four candidates, incumbent councilwoman and downtown business owner Marie Moore received the highest percentage of votes at 28%.
“I am so very grateful that the voting residents expressed such confidence in me,” she said. “I look forward to working with the residents and staff for the next four years.”
Closely behind Moore, former community planner Wendy Escoffier received 26%, followed by incumbent councilwoman and retired educator Robin Whatley with 23% and former chairman of planning and zoning, Robert Foreman with 21%.
The Yavapai County Recorder’s Office was counting 17,000 late ballots Aug. 3. The office did not indicate how many may affect Verde Valley elections. Typically, early ballots are mailed in and counted before the close of election day but the county is counting several thousand “late earlies,” i.e., mail-in ballots that voters instead handed to election officials at voting centers or dropped off in drop boxes on election day.
