Keeping count: municipal election results officially tabulated and approved
By Timothy Schafer Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The results were in. Again.
The official results of the 2022 Nelson Municipal Election were released to the outgoing city council — the new council and mayor are not sworn in yet — on Tuesday afternoon during the regular business meeting of council, and there weren’t many changes.
Current and outgoing Mayor John Dooley still came in second to current councillor Janice Morrison — at a count of 915 to 1,562 — with the same number of votes as tabulated on election night Oct. 15.
Challengers for mayor included John Buffery (897), Tom Prior (67) and Mike Zeabin (29), rounding out the field of five candidates.
“This is like getting kicked in the backside twice in one week,” joked Dooley as the item came across in council as receipt for information.
“But, congratulations to everybody that was elected to the new council, including our mayor, councillor Morrison.”
Chief elections officer Sarah Winton submitted the required ballot accounts report to council for information. Her report also noted the total votes cast, as well as reporting from the two advance voting days — held on Oct. 5 and 12.
Buffery had actually more votes than Dooley on election day — 727 to 688 — but Dooley had a stronger showing in the advance polls, 227 to 170. Morrison just edged Dooley in the advance polls at 303, but showed strong on election day at 1,259 votes.
The number of ballots received for use was 7,885 — the amount of eligible voters in the Nelson election — with a total of 3,586 ballots cast. Thirty-one ballots were deemed “spoiled,” pegging the voter turnout at around 46 per cent.
Triple bill
There also was no change in the ballots counted for the three incumbent councillors, as well as the person who led all candidates in support at the polling stations.
Kate Tait recorded 2,417 votes in her first attempt at municipal politics, far ahead of veteran and first-time councillor candidates, and led the field of 10 candidates for city council.
The three incumbent councillors followed next, with Jesse Woodward (2,060 votes), Rik Logtenberg (1,813 votes) and Keith Page (1,732 votes) securing to another term on council with the same voter support as was revealed on Oct. 15.
Close behind Page was newcomer Jesse Pineiro who garnered 1,626 votes, while Leslie Payne rounded out the six councillors chosen for the next term with a total of 1,521 votes.
Just missing the cut was Glenn Sutherland (1,370 votes), Ainsleah Hastings (1,138 votes), Brenton Raby (788 votes) and Kyle Wilkinson (656 votes).
Scholastically inclined
It was a six-way race for two trustee spots in the School District No. 8 election.
Rising to the top and well ahead of the field were Julie Bremner (1,417 votes) and Murray Shunter (1,243 votes), who will assume the mantle of trustee for Nelson at the new school board table.
Tricia Braun (638 votes), Lesley Garlow (431 votes), Tamara Ziemer (272 votes) and Kathy Krulitsky (212 votes) missed the voting cut for the board.
Incumbents Bill Maslechko and Sheri Walsh did not seek re-election.
