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Turnout up for election

The final numbers were still unofficial at press time, but it appears that voter turnout Nov. 19 was up slightly over the last municipal election in 2002.

The final numbers were still unofficial at press time, but it appears that voter turnout Nov. 19 was up slightly over the last municipal election in 2002.

In 2002 there were 5,641 people on the voters list (including approximately 1,400 second homeowners), and 1,395 people registered for a total of 7,036 potential voters. Some 3,138 votes were cast, representing roughly 45 per cent of eligible voters.

In 2005 there were 5,663 people on the voters list, and 1,448 new people registered for a total of 7,111 potential voters. There were 3,780 votes cast, representing 52 per cent of potential voters, for a rough participation increase of seven per cent over 2002.

The polling stations do not keep demographic information, such as age, sex or income of voters, and it is unknown how much Whistler’s total resident population may have changed over the three years.

Spoiled ballots had little effect on the outcome this year with just 36 spoiled ballots in three advance voting opportunities, and at polls in West Vancouver and Whistler on election day.

Tanalee Hesse, the Chief Election Officer for Whistler, said election day was mostly orderly but noted that there were busy periods during the day at the Myrtle Philip Community Centre voting station. In total, 2,960 people voted during the day.

At times the polling station was crowded and there were short lineups in the morning, mid-afternoon and between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. at night. For future elections, Hesse says the municipality will be looking at larger, and more accessible venues.

"First of all, Whistler has outgrown the room we’ve traditionally used at Myrtle Philip, it felt a bit small. We will have to look at alternatives for the future," she said.

"And it’s not just the size of the room that’s the issue. We have to look at accessibility, and at issues like parking. We know parking in the village is difficult as well, so we’ll have to look at a lot of things for the next election.

"We’ll be taking suggestions from the public for the next event as well, to make the voting station as accessible as possible, so it’s not a huge challenge for people to get there."

Overall, the impression was that the day went fairly smoothly, and while the polling station was busy the process of registering people to vote and handling ballots never caused lineups of more than a few minutes.

The race for mayor

Three-time Councillor Ken Melamed prevailed in the seven-way race for mayor, netting 1,769 of the 3,761 votes cast for the position.

That’s slightly fewer than the 1,867 votes Melamed received while running for council in 2002, but more than enough to beat former mayor and MLA Ted Nebbeling’s election 2005 tally of 1,416 votes.

Despite the number of candidates in the running, the mayor’s race was called by some as a two-horse race and that’s exactly how things unfolded on election day. The other five candidates shared just 576 votes between them, with 12-year council veteran Krisi Wells taking 346 of the remaining ballots.

Nebbeling had the lead in the advance polling, with 305 votes to Melamed’s 227, and also took the bulk of votes for mayor cast at the West Vancouver polling station, 224 to 97.

The Race for Council

Second homeowners M.I.A.?

It is unknown how many second homeowners voted this year. Of the approximately 1,400 registered voters in this category, not including new registrations, just 368 cast votes for mayor. That represents about a 26 per cent turnout. The total number of new registrations will be added to the voters list this week, which should give a more accurate picture of turnout.

Second homeowners’ impact on council elections was neutral. Subtracting West Vancouver votes from the totals of all the candidates, there would be no change in the final outcome.

Experience lost?

With the loss of Kristi Wells, Nick Davies, Hugh O’Reilly and Marianne Wade, the council is losing a combined 39 years of experience. With four new faces on council (Nancy Wilhelm-Morden was on council in three previous terms) the new council has just 21 years of combined experience.

Diversity lost?

In this council the only female Councillor is Nancy Wilhelm-Morden. That’s the least female representation since the 1990-1993 council. The last council had three female members, as did the 1999-2002 council, and 1996-1999 group.

That may be a reflection of participation – in this election there was just one female candidate out of seven for mayor and five out of 17 candidates for council.

Voting strategically?

When Dave Kirk and Marianne Wade tied for votes cast in the 2002 municipal election, it demonstrated how every vote counts. It also showed that it pays to vote strategically – rumour has it that Dave Kirk’s wife voted for Wade and Kirk in the first round, and that John "Rabbit" Hare, who was dying of cancer, got out of bed to specifically cast a vote for Kirk.

It appears that at least Whistler residents did vote strategically this time around, choosing to cast fewer votes for council than the six that were allotted and to make those votes count more. Of the 3,780 total ballots cast this year, there were only 17,863 votes for councilors, or an average of 4.7 votes per ballot.