OGDEN, Utah — Over 99% of the votes in for the Ogden Mayoral race, preliminary results show that Taylor Knuth and Ben Nadolski will advance to the general election. 59 votes behind Nadolski was Bart Blair. Angel Castillo, Jon Greiner, Oscar Mata and Chris Barragan followed in that order.
Knuth received 19.9% of votes cast, Nadolski with 18.2%, Blair with 17.7%, Castillo with 16.9%, Greiner at 15.5%, Mata at 8% and Barragan at 3.8%.
The Weber County Elections office estimates voter turnout for Ogden is at about 31.2%, which is on par with the county. It is in the ballpark for what they expected, but still low – especially with an open mayoral seat and seven candidates vying for the top two spots.
“We’ve had very good success and lots of positive comments from people, so the voter turnout, is kind of surprising,” said Terri McCulloch, President, Weber County League of Women Voters.
They are a non-partisan group that helped encourage people to vote and had a platform for people to learn more about candidates here.
Even though voter turnout was slightly higher than officials anticipated, it’s still lower than community organizers hoped for.
“Every debate we’ve had, the room has been filled with people,” added McCulloch. “Our gut feeling was that a lot people truly were interested in who was going to lead out city.”
FOX13 spoke to people in downtown Ogden Wednesday afternoon about how engaged they feel with the political process, especially with the mayoral race. A lot did not live in Ogden, and many of the ones who did, did not know there was an election happening. Some had seen the signs but did not feel motivated enough to vote.
“I don’t pay attention to the races anymore, because I just feel it doesn’t matter,” said Deana Penrod, who lives in Ogden.
She used to keep herself informed, but national races recently have deterred her from voting.
“The Trump-Biden election is what made me more aware of really how it works," she said. "That what I think doesn’t matter.”
Lukas Johnson tells me he didn’t know there was a primary on Tuesday. “I have more important things to do, I don’t really spend my time voting. I know it could help me in the future, but I never paid no mind to it.” And wishes candidates would meet voters where they are at. “I think they can do a lot better in reaching out on social media.”
Jamie Washakie is a student at Weber State, and is volunteering with the city elections office, hoping to get more people to vote. “Us Native American and Indigenous people don’t have a voice out there too much, so I think if you’re allowed and put in a position, you should at least utilize your voice in a constructive way.”
“We told everyone at the farmers market, everywhere we went, and the response was good. But maybe we didn’t hit the right targets,” McCulloch added.
