VERNON — There were many unusual occurrences in Vernon’s town elections this year, but the final results were nearly the same as they have been for more than two decades.
As usual, Vernon was the only town in Indiana to hold its election this past week.
Every two years since 1815, on the first Monday in March, Vernon’s elections have been held independently from any other county, state or national elections. The tiny town is allowed to do that because the town was legally chartered a year before Indiana became a state.
Though Vernon is the county seat of Jennings County, there are fewer than 400 people who reside there.
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In a usual election, only around 15% percent of the registered voters bother to vote for the offices of mayor, town marshal, clerk-treasurer and the three town council members positions.
However, this year’s election proved much different.
“Oh, it’s much busier than usual,” said Debby Mays during the first hour of voting which began at noon. “We’ve already had 17 people sign in.”
Mays, Darlene Stark, and Susan Hardings were in charge of making sure all voters were eligible to vote and properly signed in at the Vernon Gymnasium on Monday. By the time poling closed at 6 p.m., 85 (56%) of the town’s 159 registered votes had been cast.
Not only were there more voters than usual, but there were also many more candidates than usual in Vernon’ s election.
Vernon’s candidates have most often run on the Citizens Party ticket in honor of the designated political party when the town was first founded. This year, incumbent mayor Dan Wright, incumbent town marshal Britt Burgmeier, and incumbent town council members Eric Ganda and Jeff Walker all ran on the ticket. In the clerk-treasurer race, Citizen candidate Amber Fields challenged longtime incumbent and fellow party member M. Jean Rocky.
In this year’s election, for the first time ever, the newly organized Indiana Libertarian Party had three candidates on the ballot.
Not only did Libertarians run for office, they also sent the party’s top political organizers to Vernon’s little election.
“I think It was really surprising for most people when they opened their door and saw Donald Rainwater standing there asking them to go vote,” said Libertarian Party of Jennings County Chairman Kevin Cornell.
According to Cornell, the former candidate for governor arrived in Vernon the day before the election for the purpose of introducing the Libertarian Party and to encourage people to vote for the three Libertarian candidates.
Libertarian candidate Kayla Coleman was in the mayor’s race, Michael Madden ran for town marshal and Sara Katie Madden vied for the town council seat representing the 3rd Ward. Damon Davers, a Republican, also ran for town marshal.
When the votes were counted, no Libertarian candidate had won their bid for a Vernon office. However, Cornell was not discouraged about the future of the party in Jennings County.
“I am far, far, far from discouraged,” Cornell said. “Each of our candidates won an average of 32% of the vote. That is amazing for a first-time-ever run. We are not just interested in winning elections, we are here to shape future elections and the government’s system of doing things.”
Except for Rocky, all incumbents were returned to office. Rocky served for 30 years as Vernon’s town clerk-treasurer, but just hours before the voting began she quietly withdrew her name from the ballot. Fields will now serve in the position.
Wright will continue to serve as mayor, Burgmeier is still the town marshal and Ganda, Walker and Shelly Davers will return as council members representing their wards.
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Winners of the 2021 election in Vernon included:
Mayor
Dan Wright (Citizens Party)
Town marshal
Britt Burgmeier (C)
Clerk-treasurer
Amber Fields (C)
Town council
1st Ward — Eric Ganda (C)
2nd Ward — Jeff Walker (C)
3rd Ward — Shelly Davers (R)
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