Tim Huntington expected to have a couple of months between the Nov. 3 election and the date he would take office as Seward County’s sheriff, but agreed on Nov. 4 to begin work as the interim sheriff on Nov. 6.
At Sheriff Mike Vance’s request, his retirement date was moved up to Nov. 5. The Seward County Board of Commissioners voted Nov. 3 to offer the interim position to the candidate who won the election that day and called a special meeting on Nov. 4 to make the appointment official.
After receiving 4,925 of the 7,676 votes cast in the Seward County election, Huntington said Nov. 4 that taking the office now is just one of the “unexpected twists” experienced throughout his campaign for sheriff.
The campaign, he said, “got a lot more muddy than I expected.”
“I think it went really well,” Huntington said in an interview Nov. 4. “I did not expect to truly enjoy just door knocking and talking to people I had never met before.”
But the experience turned out to be “fantastic” for him.
“That whole part was an unexpected twist,” he said.
Sooner than he planned, he will meet with Seward County Sheriff’s Office staff, and while he said there may be some initial changes, he anticipates any “big changes” would be made after some time.
He previously worked as a deputy in the sheriff’s office, but more recently worked at the Lancaster County sheriff’s office.
“There is going to be a lot of adapting to what is happening in the sheriff’s office now,” he said. “I am truly grateful for the citizens of Seward County. That is who I am there to serve.”
At the original filing deadline, Huntington was joined on the ballot by Troy Schaefer and Trey Wayne, but Schaefer and Wayne missed a financial statement filing deadline in the campaign process and ended up registering as write-in candidates.
Later, Wayne told the Independent he would not withdraw as a registered write-in candidate, but would not be campaigning actively for health reasons. So, if any of the write-in votes on Nov. 3 were for Wayne, the election commissioner would still count those votes.
Votes for write-in candidates who are not registered are grouped under one general category.
As of Nov. 4, the race included more than 2,000 counted write-in votes.
The Independent’s attempts to contact Schaefer had not been successful at press time.
