Across the country, Americans came out to vote in elections big and small last week. While off-year elections tend to draw fewer voters to the polls, races for mayors of St. Paul and Minneapolis, as well as control of the Minnesota Senate hung in the balance.
In Hastings, residents voted in only one race: who will be the next school board member.
In town, 2,436 total voters came out for the election. They sent Elaine Mikel-Mulder back to the school board with 1,481 votes, or 60.8% of the vote overall. Mikel-Mulder beat Simone Rendon by a nearly 30% margin, with Rendon receiving 780 votes or 32.02%.
Mikel-Mulder currently sits on the ISD 200 School Board. She was seated in May after the death of Jenny Weiderholt-Pine. She will be sworn in on Jan. 5, 2026 for a three-year term.
Despite dropping out of the race in September, Marty Weber received 169 votes or nearly 7% of the vote in part because ballots were printed while Weber was still in the race and therefore sported his name on election day.
The ISD 200 School Board opted to hold the election with five polling places rather than one in an effort to make voting more accessible to Hastings voters. Across those five polling places teams of judges oversaw the vote.
“It’s been steady,” said Jennie Thomas, Head Election Judge at St. Phillips.
Thomas has been an election judge for three years across both presidential and off-year elections.
“People are less wound up,” said Thomas, especially from last year’s contentious presidential election. Thomas spoke to having to previously ask voters to remove political messages, slogans or clothing before being able to vote, which wasn’t always an easy conversation.
For the non-partisan school board race, that issue was not at play.
That steady but mellow sentiment was echoed in polling places across the city. Voters came in fits and starts, lined up at several polling places before doors opened, with a lunch rush also seen as voters sneaked out on lunch breaks to cast their vote.
“There’s been more people than I expected,” said Caitlyn Klein, Head Election Judge at Hope Lutheran Church.
For Klein being an election judge was “a way to be part of the process.”
One election judge with a vested interest in the race was Jessica Dressley, Co-Head Election Judge at St. Johns and Vice Chair of the ISD 200 School Board.
Dressley worked previously as an election judge in Vermillion Township, so the shift to a Hastings polling place was “a lot busier,” said Dressley.
St. Johns was the polling place for many residents outside of the county and city but within the Hastings school district, forcing them to drive into the city to vote. It was a particular point of discussion at the school board for voter accessibility during the planning of the election, but the steady stream of voters throughout the day brought in many from the various corners of ISD 200.
“We haven’t heard of any problems,” said Mary Right, Co-Head Election Judge at St. Johns about voters having to drive into town to vote.
Beyond Hastings, the DFL held onto their one-seat lead in the Minnesota Senate picking DFLer Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger for State Senate District 47 in Woodbury and Republican Michael Holmstrom Jr. for State Senate District 29.
In the Twin Cities, voters sent Jacob Frey back to the mayor’s office in Minneapolis for a third term, beating out Democratic Socialist Omar Fateh after a second round of ranked choice voting. In St. Paul, voters chose Kaohly Her over her former boss and current St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter. She is the first female and Hmong mayor of St. Paul.