Key election highlights:

Ralph Becker handily defeats Dave Buhler to succeed Rocky Anderson as Salt Lake City mayor. With 40,689 votes cast in 167 precincts, Becker took it 64 percent to just 36 percent for his opponent. As mentioned previously, Becker’s momentum curve throughout the campaign was an exemplary case study of effective municipal electioneering.

In the critical downtown district race for City Council, Luke Garrott, a University of Utah political science professor, handily defeated Nancy Saxton, who was seeking her third four-year term, by garnering 58 percent of the 4527 votes cast in the 25 district precincts. Garrott will be an important voice for downtown residents and business owners.

As expected, the statewide citizen’s referendum for school vouchers was easily defeated across the state with 62 percent voting against the referendum. While the measure went down by a margin of better than 2-1 in Salt Lake County, there were a handful of counties where the margin of defeat was much smaller. Nearly two-thirds of the 174,727 votes cast in Salt Lake County were against the referendum. However, in Utah County to the south of Salt Lake City, the referendum was defeated by less than a 4,500-vote margin out of more than 84,000 cast. In Washington County at the bottom of the state, which includes St. George, just 714 votes separated the opposing sides out of more than 27,000 votes cast. However, in the substantially populated counties to the north of Salt Lake City — Davis and Weber — the margin was wider with 60 percent of voters casting ballots against the referendum. The measure did not pass in any of Utah’s 29 counties. The results roughly parallel the political realities of the referendum endorsement by the state GOP party.

Somewhat surprisingly, Salt Lake City voters narrowly defeated a public safety bond issue to build new police and fire headquarters. With 39,859 votes cast in 167 precincts, the margin of defeat was just 291 votes or three-quarters of a percentage point. Keep in mind that final vote tallies will not be certified until all remaining mail and absentee ballots are tabulated. However, one cannot discount the impact of Mayor Rocky Anderson’s public call just four days before the vote about the excessive tax burden the bond issue would have placed on city residents.