The votes have been cast and counted and recounted after some of the data was not entered properly, and the winners have been announced.
Congratulations to Tumbler Ridge’s new council: Darryl Krakowka, who received 260 votes, a margin of a mere 25 votes over previous mayor Don McPherson. Rick Consalvi received 78 votes.
“This is an exciting and opportune time for Tumbler Ridge,” says mayor-elect Krakowka “There is so much opportunity knocking on our door. It’s time to capitalize on it. I will serve Tumbler Ridge with honest and open governance and commit to working with all stakeholders as mayor to build a healthy and sustainable community.”
Councillors elected were Chris Norbury, Roxanne Gulick, Ron Hofman, Luana Dusseault, Nicole Noksana and Ken Klikach.
There was a moment of controversy, after some people noted that their votes appeared not to have been counted.
However, there was no grand conspiracy, says Aleen Torraville, Chief Election Officer for the District. “All the ballots are intact, and the proper tally was taken,” she says. “When tallies are totalled, we put the numbers into a tally sheet. It turns out the tally sheet from October 5 didn’t get transferred.”
Fortunately, when the numbers were added (less than 18 hours after the original results were released) the results stayed exactly the same. Only the final number changed.
For instance, Chris Norbury was initially reported as having the most votes, with 380.
That number is now at 458, or about 80 percent of the people who voted, still leaving him as the one with the most votes for council.
That’s a better situation than in the Area C vote of the Peace River Regional District (PRRD). When the preliminary results were announced, incumbent (and PRRD Board Chair) Brad Sperling was one vote ahead.
But a recount puts him three votes behind Suzanne Haab, who now has 234 votes. However, those numbers are in doubt, as the Chief Elections Officer will be submitting an application to challenge the validity of the election.
There is, according to a statement on the PRRD website, “evidence of persons voting when not entitled to vote in Electoral Area C. Elections documentation indicates that a small number of electors from outside of Area C voted in the election by mistake.”
Currently, there is no evidence to indicate this was done on purpose or maliciously. Still, due to the closeness of the election results, the small number of ineligible ballots may have determined the overall election result and the validity of the election must be challenged.
The Supreme Court of Canada will be reviewing the application to decide whether a new election must be held in Area C. “This application will not challenge the validity of the election in Area B or any of the five assent votes,” says the statement. “Suzanne Haab will take office as Electoral Area Director for Area C until such time as the Supreme Court issues a decision.”
In Tumbler Ridge, 573 people cast their votes for mayor, or less than a third of the estimated eligible voters in this election. That’s down from the 53.5 percent last election. There are 1813 estimated eligible voters in Tumbler Ridge, which means that about 31.6 percent of the population turned out.
Roxanne Gulick received 447 votes, Nicole Noksana 430, Ken Klikash 364, Ron Hofman 353, Luane Dusseault 288 and Garret Golhof 225.
The first meeting of the new council will be on Nov 7.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
