With two candidates vying to be the next mayor of Fort Frances, and another 11 competing for the six seats on council, the winners of the municipal election should be known shortly after 8 p.m. tonight.
Election staff were expected to start tabulating the ballots around 10 a.m. today.
And using two electronic vote tabulators each working at a rate of 500 ballots per hour, the last batch of ballots should be counted shortly after the vote officially wraps up at 8 p.m., returning officer Glenn Treftlin explained this morning.
“If everything goes to plan, we should have it done shortly after 8 p.m. tonight, and we can punch that button and see how things go,” he noted.
As in past elections, the results will be on display at the Civic Centre for the public to see tonight. The total results will be revealed all at once—not as they are tabulated, noted Treftlin.
Since the ballots are being counted by electronic tabulators, the results are saved onto memory cards, which then are plugged into a computer and projected on a screen for everyone to see.
“There will be no interim results coming out,” stressed Treftlin, adding even the election staff won’t know how the votes are adding up since they will feed ballots into the tabulators facedown.
The voting results not only will show the candidates’ shares of ballots cast, but the total vote potential and the percentage of voter turnout.
The public is welcome to come down to the Civic Centre starting at 7 p.m. Refreshments will be on hand.
Residents also can watch the results on Shaw Cable (Channel 10), which will go live with a feed around 7:55 p.m. The results also will be posted on the Fort Frances Times’ website as soon as they’re available.
Assistant returning officer Lori Pattison said this morning about 3,600 ballots had been returned as of the end of the day Friday, and is hopeful more last-minute votes come in throughout the day.
Voters still can cast their ballots up until 8 p.m. today. Just drop by the Civic Centre with your completed voting kit, or if you still don’t have one, check with election staff there and go through the process to get one.
The candidates running for mayor include Roy Avis, who’s been on council for the past nine years, and incumbent Dan Onichuk.
Those running for council include incumbents John Albanese, Tannis Drysdale, Todd Hamilton, Neil Kabel, and Rick Wiedenhoeft, as well as challengers Allan T. Bedard, Andrew Hallikas, Ken Perry, Paul Ryan, Sharon Tibbs, and Nick Wihnan.
Those elected as mayor and council officially will take their positions after making their declaration of office and oath of allegiance at their inaugural meeting Monday, Dec. 4.
Meanwhile, the candidates running for three Fort Frances seats on the Northwest Catholic District School Board include incumbents Anne Marie Fitzgerald, Harold Huntley, and Gerry Rousseau, and challenger Paul Cousineau.
Treftlin noted the results for this race won’t be known as soon as the ones for mayor and council as he has to wait for the results from La Vallee, Alberton, and the unincorporated areas also voting for these school board candidates.
“Our system will project how the ballots went in Fort Frances for those offices, but I still have to wait for the final numbers to come in from those outlying areas that are doing manual count,” he explained.
Since only two candidates put their names in for the two Fort Frances seats on the Rainy River District School Board, Dan Belluz and Donna Dittaro both were acclaimed as trustees.
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