The city of Janesville’s 22,000 absentee ballots prove to be the difference in the race for the open 44th District Assembly seat.
When all of the in-person voting on election day was counted, Republican DuWayne Severson held a lead over Democrat Sue Conley.
All of the absentee ballot results were reported to the Rock County Clerk at once, and the margin flipped to Conley, who won with 60.14 percent of the votes.
She replaces Democrat Deb Kolste who did not seek reelection.
Conley will serve out the remainder of her term as Janesville City Council president but won’t seek reelection for that position when it expires in April.
She said her priorities in the state office will focus on non-partisan redistricting, changing the state shared-revenue formula, expanding access to healthcare and preventing homelessness.
