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Kincardine mayor Larry Kraemer has been re-elected.

Unofficial results from last night's municipal election show Kraemer defeated deputy mayor Laura Haight by just 38 votes. He garnered 2,262 votes to her 2,224 votes. Ron Stephens was in third with 581 votes.

"Thirty-eight votes, that's a real squeaker," said Haight. "I'm proud of the campaign I ran. I knew it would be close. Congratulations to all the successful candidates and to Anne Eadie who did so well. I'm glad to see Jacqueline Faubert won in Ward 1 and Candy Hewitt in Ward 2."

She said she has yet to actually absorb the election results and would not say whether she would call for a re-count because the numbers were so close.

Deputy mayor is Anne Eadie who had the most votes for councillor-at-large (3,664), followed by Maureen Couture with 2,879 votes, Kenneth Craig with 2,597 votes, and Ron Coristine with 2,473 votes.

"I'm overwhelmed," said Eadie. "I was so excited to see an asterisk beside my name and to know I'd been elected to council. I appreciate everyone who worked so hard on my campaign, especially my family - my husband, my mother and my sister. I'm looking forward to working on Kincardine council and making this municipality a great place to live, work and play."

Also in the race were incumbent Marsha Leggett with 1,577 votes, Ward 1 councillor Guy Anderson with 2,258 votes, and Ron Farrell with 1,478 votes.

Ward 1 councillors are Jacqueline Faubert who had 1,554 votes and incumbent Mike Leggett with 1,214 votes. Running against them were Ron Boulton with 1,158 votes, and Norm Annetts with 823 votes.

"It feels great to be voted in," said Faubert. "It was a pleasant surprise to top the polls. I'm excited and ambitious. I plan to celebrate and then get some sleep."

Ward 2 councillor is Candy Hewitt who had 861 votes, defeating incumbent councillor Gordon Campbell who had 520 votes.

"I'm very pleased with the results," said Hewitt. "Now, I'm ready to get to work."

Voter turn-out in Kincardine was 51.32 per cent.

The election results were expected to be released by 8:30 p.m. but due to malfunctioning electronic tabulators, ballot-counting did not begin until 6 p.m., rather than 2 p.m. The results were finally posted by 10:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, in Huron-Kinloss, due to thousands of voters accessing the electronic Intelivote system between 7-7:30 p.m., there were large time delays. At 7:45 p.m., as allowed by the Municipal Elections Act, the voting period was extended one hour, to 9 p.m. 

Unofficial results there show incumbent Don Murray (left) topping the polls with 1,833 votes, followed by incumbents Jim Hanna with 1,784 votes, Lillian Abbott with 1,732 votes, newcomer Carl Sloetjes with 1,679 votes, and incumbent Jeff Elliott with 1,478 votes.

The sixth candidate was Roger Smith who had 1,364 votes.

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Monday, October 25, 2010