Not long after election workers made their trek to the Ripley County Courthouse the results of the May 6 primary were counted and on display.

Candidates, friends, family and interested county residents positioned themselves throughout the first floor hallway to get a glimpse of the monitors detailing the day’s results.

The final tallies revealed the winners of three contested county races as well as the uncontested.

Republicans had four candidates for county council at large hoping to be one of the three chosen to run on the November ballot. The top three vote getters were Bill Warren with 30 percent; Ben Peetz with 27 percent; and Donald Dunbar with 26 percent.

Earlier in the evening, Warren said he felt confident because “I have worked hard for the last two months. I visited every voting site yesterday and today.”

Warren also praised newcomer Frank Hillberg for putting his name in the hat.

Even though he didn’t win this time around, Hillberg indicated, “I’m looking forward to seeing where I can fit in somewhere in the future.”

What were the biggest challenges? “I ran against two incumbents and another well-known decent guy. It was an uphill battle, but very educational.”

On the Democratic side, Bill Dramann received 57 percent of the vote for county council at large, while George Ammerman was second with 43 percent..

Both incumbent commissioner candidates were upset by their Republican counterparts.

Mark Busching received the District 2 nomination with 53 percent, compared to Chuck Folz’s 47 percent.

For District 3, Gary Stutler grabbed 42 percent of the vote to better incumbent Lawrence Nickell with 38 percent and John Little with 20 percent.

Voter turnout for the county was 33 percent, up from 2004 when only 18 percent cast ballots in the primary.

For a complete list of the results from Ripley County, see the Friday print edition of The Herald-Tribune.