Hulse, Baumann popular in Custer County

Amber Hulse’s victory in the District 30 Senate primary was due in large part to her popularity on the western side of Custer County, a look into the voting results by precinct shows.
Hulse garnered a much larger percentage of votes in the City of Custer and area around the city in her matchup with incumbent Julie Frye-Mueller, while Frye-Mueller was more popular with voters in eastern Custer County.
In Custer County’s largest voting precinct, Bear Rock, Hulse picked up 256 votes, while Frye-Mueller recieved 208.
Hulse also won in all three of the City of Custer’s precincts, as she beat out Frye-Mueller 63-43 in Precinct 6 (Ward I), 35-23 in Precinct 7 (Ward II), and 96-63 in Precinct 8 (Ward III). In another Custer-area Precinct, Sentinel Hill, Hulse had 147 votes, while Frye-Mueller had 86.
It was a different story east of Custer State Park, however, as Frye-Mueller won in the Buffalo Gap precinct 34-20, the Fairburn precinct 39-13 and the Hermosa precinct 170-163. Frye-Mueller also pulled more votes at Elk Mountain, 33-30. Hulse did carry the Pringle precinct 107-89.
In the race for two seats in the District 30 House of Representatives Custer County did its best to carry local Pat Baumann into one of those seats, as he was the leading vote-getter or in the top two of vote-getters in every county precinct.
At Bear Rock, Baumann received the most votes, with 264, over 40 votes more than Trish Ladner, who had 213, and 80 more than Tim Goodwin, who had 184.
The same was true in the city precincts, as in Precinct 6 Baumann had 67 votes to Goodwin’s 46 and Ladner’s 43, and had 42 votes to Goodwin’s 27 and Ladner’s 23 in Precinct 7. In Precinct 8, Baumann again had the most votes at 92, while Ladner had 80 and Goodwin 78.
Baumann edged Goodwin 118-115 at Sentinel Hill (Ladner had 101), and in Pringle Baumann led the candidates with 93 votes while Goodwin had 78 and Ladner 72.
Finally Baumann led all candidates in Elk Mountain, with 38 votes. Matt Smith of Hermosa was second in this precinct with 28 votes, while Ladner had 27 and Goodwin 26.
The three precincts where Baumann didn’t lead were all in eastern Custer County.
In Hermosa, local Matt Smith led all candidates with 189 votes, while Goodwin was second at 164 and Ladner was third at 133. Baumann received 105 votes.
In Buffalo Gap, Ladner, who is from nearby Hot Springs, grabbed the most votes at 29, followed by Smith at 22, Goodwin at 20 and Baumann at 17.
Finally, in Fairburn, Smith was again the most popular candidate, grabbing 39 votes. Ladner was second with 27 votes, while Goodwin had 23. Baumann was fourth with nine votes.
In the Custer School Distirct Board of Education race, challenger Heath Reindl won eight of the precincts, with incumbent Jeff Barnes winning the others. Most of the precincts were close between all three candidates. In some cases less than 10 votes seperated all three candidates. In one interesting tidbit from the race, in Elk Mountain (where most of the precinct is part of the Elk Mountain School District), there were only two votes cast in the Custer School District race, with both of those votes going to Barnes.