Incumbents retain seats on FEC board

Three incumbents, who all ran unopposed, have been re-elected to Flathead Electric Cooperative’s Board of Trustees.

The annual election closed Friday, May 20 and the board met on Monday, May 23 to certify and announce the results.

The co-op’s bylaws require an election whether a race is contested or not.

Stacey Schnebel will continue to serve in the District 1 seat, which includes Columbia Falls to Essex. She earned 5,427 votes.

Steve Streich retains the seat for District 4, which is the Helena Flats and Columbia Falls Stage area, by earning 5,379 votes.

Gary Boe will continue to serve in the District 7 seat, which is Kalispell south of U.S. 2, after garnering 5,670 votes.

Results received from the independent election processing company Survey & Ballots Systems showed a total of 6,848 ballots received. Of those ballots, 4,860 were paper mail-in ballots and 1,988 were e-ballots.

This year’s election was the first in which electronic voting was available to members, via an emailed ballot, on the My Co-op mobile app, or on the co-op’s website. These new voting options gave members more ways to participate in the election, according to the co-op, and in addition saves significant paper and postage costs, which helps the not-for-profit, member-owned cooperative keep rates low.

To opt-out of future paper ballots, members may update their voting preferences at flatheadelectric.com/myballot.