Keokuk County turnout reported to be light in Pekin Special Election

Overall turnout in Keokuk County appeared to be light on Jan. 21, as voters headed to the polls to select an at-large Pekin school board member, and a director-district 5 Pekin school board member. According to Keokuk County Auditor’s Office Election Designee Luann Berger, overall turnout on Election Day in Keokuk County was reported to be lower than the levels recorded in the November 2019 election. Berger added that only around a dozen absentee ballots had been cast in the Auditor’s office prior to Election Day.

On Thursday, Jan. 16, a candidate forum, hosted by the News-Review and the Clarion Plainsman, was held at Pekin High School, with all five school board candidates attending.

Questions for the candidates were varied, and ranged from philosophies on governing, to preparing students for the future, to the role of the school board. One particular question drew the most emotional responses from candidates, that being if students graduating from Pekin were prepared for the future. The question drew perhaps the most impassioned response from director- district 5 candidate Katie Keith, who said that from a cultural standpoint, students graduating from Pekin may not be as prepared as they should be.

“We can be prepared educationally but I do not believe our kids are prepared culturally or socially,” Keith said.

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