A judicial recount of Creston’s votes in the Oct. 20 municipal election will take place Friday, Judge Lynal Doerksen ruled in Creston Law Courts yesterday.
Town of Creston chief election officer Stacey Hadley applied for the recount “due to the closeness of the ballot count,” as stated in an Oct. 29 news release, and to confirm that ballots were correctly accepted or rejected.
“In order to maintain the integrity of the election process and to confirm the ballot counting process, I felt it was important to go through this process,” she said following the decision.
The Oct. 20 election had some tight races, with incumbent Mayor Ron Toyota returned for a fourth term with 972 votes, closely followed by challenger Bill Hutchinson with 907, while Mary Jayne Blackmore trailed with 355.
In the council race, newcomers Arnold DeBoon and Ellen Tzakis topped the polls with over 1,200 votes, followed by incumbents Jen Comer, Jim Elford and Karen Unruh with over 1,100 votes each. Just behind them, only eight votes separated Jim Karountzos, successful with 987, and Joanna Wilson, unseated with 979.
After Hadley made her presentation to the judge, Hutchinson expressed concern about the registration process. He told that judge that 700 registrations were added to the approximately 4,400 on the list for the December 2017 fire hall borrowing referendum, and 350 more signed up for the Oct. 20 election.
“That tells me over 5,500 people live in Creston, and nobody under the age of 18,” he told Doerksen.
“I would strongly suggest legal counsel, because this may not be the court for that,” Doerksen responded.
Tzakis supported Hutchinson’s concerns, and further told the judge that totals don’t add up — 2,245 voters cast ballots, but only 2,234 votes were counted between the three mayoral candidates.
“This court is not dealing with an imbalance,” said Doerksen.
All of the ballots cast — for mayor, council and the fire hall borrowing referendum — will be counted by hand, with Doerksen overseeing the recount process, which begins at 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 2, the last day provincial election law allows for a recount. Also entitled to attend are the chief election officer, the candidates in the election and the official agents and counsel of the candidates.
“I feel it will give some much-needed peace of mind to the Creston Valley,” said Hadley.