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Nye County District 1 Commissioner-elect Lorinda Wichman of Round Mountain won an overwhelming 82 percent of the vote in northern Nye County precincts and almost 50 percent in the south, to defeat Pahrumpian Rob Mobley in the Nov. 4 election.

Geographic differences were less profound in the 5th District Judge Department 1 race in which incumbent John Davis, of Tonopah, won all but one precinct countywide in his convincing win over Marla Zlotek of Pahrump.

Mobley emphasized the fact he lived in Pahrump, along with over 70 percent of the constituents in District 1, during his campaign. But he failed to pick up the 60 percent of Pahrump voters he said he would need to offset Wichman's strong support in northern Nye County.

Eighty-five percent of the voters in Wichman's home base of Smoky Valley voted for her, 200 votes to 35. She carried the Round Mountain precinct big, 260-33, an 88 percent margin. Small outlying precincts like Gabbs, Ione, Duckwater, Currant and Sunnyside also favored Wichman.

The more populous precincts were in Pahrump, but Mobley's margin of victory wasn't decisive. He carried Pahrump Precinct 19 by 555-499 (53 percent), Precinct 23 by 173-136 (56 percent) and Precinct 32 by 511-480 (52 percent).

Zlotek didn't market her Pahrump roots as heavily as Mobley but mentioned it in her campaign advertising. She narrowly defeated Davis in Precinct 28, her home, 479 votes to 465.

Northern precincts went heavily for Davis. In Tonopah's two precincts, Davis captured 88 percent of the vote, defeating Zlotek 825-108. Round Mountain and Smoky Valley broke for Davis 420-87, for 82 percent of the vote total. Davis won 56 percent of the votes in the combined Pahrump precincts, 7,533-5,785.

Nye County District 2 Commissioner Joni Eastley handily won all five precincts in her district, including Pahrump Precinct 26, by a margin of 412-228. The district also includes Tonopah, Beatty and Amargosa Valley.

Nye County District 3 Commissioner Gary Hollis won handily over Harley Kulkin in all four precincts in that district race on the west side of Pahrump.

President-elect Barack Obama won only one precinct in the county, Pahrump Precinct 10, and then by only a 232-225 margin. Democrat Jill Derby, a candidate for U.S. Congressional District 2, was unable to win any precincts in Nye County in her race against incumbent U.S. Rep. Dean Heller.

Nevada District 36 Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, a Republican, was unable to win his home precinct of Amargosa Valley, where his challenger, Democrat Scotty Babb, outpolled him 185-158. Babb also won in the small Duckwater and Ione precincts, but Goedhart easiily captured the remaining 30 precincts to win a second term.

Successful Pahrump Justice of the Peace candidate Kent Jasperson won all 19 Pahrump precincts in his victory over Linda DeMeo.

The two victorious Pahrump Town Board candidates -- Mike Darby and Vicky Parker -- finished in the top two in all of Pahrump except Precinct 16, where incumbent Don Rust finished second, just ahead of Darby.

A majority of Nye County voters in all precincts rejected Ballot Question No. 1, requiring six months residency in the state to vote in an election, and Ballot Question No. 4, allowing the state legislature to amend the sales and use tax without a vote of the people.

Nye County voters in all precincts favored Ballot Question No. 2, requiring property taken for public use under eminent domain to be valued at its highest price on the open market, and passed Ballot Question No. 3 everywhere but Smoky Valley, allowing sales tax exemtpions only under certain circumstances.