A look at San Luis Valley election results

VALLEY — A quick look at the San Luis Valley races from Tuesday’s election:
In Alamosa, incumbent Michael Yohn defeated challenger Edward Vigil to retain his Alamosa County commission post representing District 2; Amy McKinley defeated Donna Griego in a close race for Alamosa County treasurer; and incumbent Sandra Hostetter handily retained her position as Alamosa County assessor against challenger Josef Lucero.
In Conejos County, Garth Crowther easily defeated Jacob Ortiz in the sheriff’s race; incumbent Richard Martin defeated Leslie Salazar in the coroner’s contest; and by a fair margin voters turned down a ballot question for a tax increase for sheriff operations and emergency services.
In Costilla County, a ballot issue for a BEST match for a new school building at Sierra Grande School was defeated by 8 votes, according to the total by press time.
In Mineral County, incumbent Patti Payne retained her seat against challenger Michael Averette by a two-to-one margin.
In Rio Grande County, voters chose Donald McDonald to be the new sheriff, with incumbent Brian Norton not receiving enough write-in votes to retain his seat.
In Saguache County, incumbent Trish Gilbert defeated challenger Renee Hazard for the Clerk & Recorder position; Sheriff Dan Warwick held his post by 72 percent of the vote against challenger Nobel Havens; and in the three-way race for Saguache County Commissioner District 3, incumbent Tim Lovato earned 54 percent of the vote to retain his position, while Terry Gillette and Lisa Rosen received 25 percent and 22 percent of the vote, respectively. Unlike Conejos County, Saguache County voters approved a tax increase for law enforcement by more than 150 votes, 1,369 to 1,213. Saguache city voters decided not to allow retail recreational marijuana stores or medical marijuana stores in town. Moffat voters approved a 5-percent marijuana sales tax 34 to 14 votes.
On a regional level, State Representative Donald Valdez retained his seat in the House against challenger Scott Honeycutt by more than 3,200 votes at press time.
Voter turnout was high in the most of the San Luis Valley with 84 percent in Mineral County; 67 percent in Alamosa County and Conejos County; 62 percent in Saguache County and Rio Grande County; and 45 percent in Costilla County, where the local elections had been decided at the Primary Election level.

Keep up on the latest election results at:
https://www.sos.state.co.us/