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Wilhelm-Morden held election lead from get-go

RMOW to pay $58,000 for municipal election
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Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden was always in the lead; at least, that's what the election numbers show.

The official results were released this week and show that in every stage of the game, Wilhelm-Morden was top vote getter in the municipal election, from the advanced polls in early November to the mail in ballots and then the final election day votes. In fact, by the time the advanced polls and the mail-in ballots were tallied, Wilhelm-Morden had already run the race.

In the advanced polls on Nov. 9 and 12, Wilhelm-Morden secured 378 votes, compared to 110 for Ken Melamed and 76 for Ralph Forsyth.

In the mail-in vote, used for the first time in Whistler for the 2011 election, Wilhelm-Morden got 320 votes, compared to 29 for Melamed and 41 for Forsyth. The mail in ballots accounted for 10 per cent of all ballots cast.

The real numbers came in on election day with Wilhelm-Morden at 1,938, Melamed 471 and Forsyth 381, but by that time she had already won.

Of council members, Roger McCarthy received the most votes overall and at every stage of the voting process, including both advance polls and mail-in ballots (583 votes) and election day (1,360 votes).

Jack Crompton, Duane Jackson and Jayson Faulkner also did well in advance polls, and were clear favourites coming into election day. Andrée Janyk saw an election day surge with 1,053 votes.

The election cost the municipality about $58,000, significantly less than the $75,000 budgeted. The mail-in ballots did have an additional cost attached, although in past years the municipality paid to have a remote voting station in West Vancouver for second homeowners.

Almost 55 per cent of the 7,206 eligible voters had their say in the election, which was well above the provincial average of 41 per cent turnout.