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NORTHWOOD, N.D. – Though Karl Broeren did not run for mayor, the news that he will be the next mayor of Northwood was not completely out of the blue.
“Somebody’s got to do it,” said Broeren. “I heard rumors. I guess I expected the result to be what it was.”
This year, the Northwood mayor’s race consisted only of write-in votes. Broeren, who has served on the Northwood City Council since 2020, received the most, with unofficial election results showing he received 74 votes in the election on Tuesday, June 14. In total, 161 votes were cast.
Broeren plans to accept the community’s nomination and will be sworn in as mayor on June 28, pending official results from the Grand Forks County canvassing board on June 27.
The city of Thompson also had a mayor’s race with only write-in votes. Terri Herbert, city administrator, said Jeremy Hughes, a member of the Thompson City Council, received the most write-ins with 65 votes. According to unofficial results, 100 votes were cast for the race. Though Hughes did not respond to requests for comment sent to his city email, Herbert says Hughes plans to accept the position once election results are certified.
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In Northwood, Shelly Radke, city auditor, said that in a write-in election, the candidate with the most votes is offered the position, but candidates who are written in do not have to accept.
“If they refuse it, then we go to the next highest number of votes, and so on and so on," she said. "But if they accept it, then we stop there."
Results for all elections on June 14, including write-in races, still need to be certified by the Grand Forks County canvassing board.
“We always want to make sure that the candidates know, whether they accept or deny, that these are unofficial (results) and it potentially could change once the canvassing board has completed their meeting and approved everything,” said Radke.
For Broeren to accept the mayor position, he will have to turn down a seat on City Council. He was appointed to the Northwood City Council in 2020, taking over halfway through another council member's four-year term. To continue serving on the council for the remaining two years of that four-year term, he was required to file to run for the seat in the June 14 election. According to unofficial election results, he got 48.69% of the vote, but will give up his seat to take on the role of mayor.
Later, he says, somebody will be appointed to fill that vacant seat.
At this point, says Broeren, he does not have a specific agenda coming into his term as Northwood’s next mayor.
“We’ve got street problems. We’ve got drainage problems. We’ve been working on it for several years so it’s just to continue that,” he said.
