Lucas Olson wins special Benson council election

Lucas Olson was elected Tuesday to complete the three years left in Jonathon Pogge-Weaver’s Benson City Council term. He received 95 vote beating out three challengers. Brad Johnson received 47 votes, Mike Fugleberg 42 and Larry Smith 37.
An early morning blizzard, with cold blustery conditions that continued through the day Tuesday, helped hold voter turnout down. Also, with the special council election the only race on the ballot, city officials were not expecting much of a turnout.
Total voter turnout was 222 votes with one ballot cast for a write-in candidate, but though the write-in box was checked, a name was not written in. In the 2015 Benson City Council election, there were 784 votes cast with 1,752 citizens registered. Voter turnout in 2015 was around 45 percent. Voter turnout for the special election is going to be under 15 percent.
Olson, who works at Swift Machine and Fab, LLC, in Benson, was making his first run for local public office. However, even before he filed for office last fall, he started attending council meetings, often with his young daughter with him. He continued attending council meetings up through Tuesday’s election.
Pogge-Weaver was elected to a four-year term on the council in November 2015, but resigned his seat this past October when his family moved to Carroll, Iowa. The council appointed former long-time City Council Member Sue Fitz to fill the seat until a special election could be conducted to fill the vacancy.
 
 
 
Candidate            Northside Southside  Total
Lucas Olson          31            64             95
Brad Johnson         27            20             47
Mike Fugleberg      20            22             42
Larry Smith           21            16             37
Totals                  99            122            221