SOMETIMES one vote can make a difference.
In the case of the North Vancouver board of education, that's all that separated school trustee-elect Christie Sacré from Chris Dorais following a judicial recount Tuesday.
The two candidates were tied after the accepted ballots were recounted at 2,178 votes apiece, with the judge still set to rule on the admissibility of four ballots that scrutineers had objected to.
All four ballots were accepted by the judge, tipping the balance for Sacré, who had been declared as elected to represent the City of North Vancouver when polls closed Nov. 19. The official tally was 2,181 to 2,180.
"Oh, relieved," said Sacré, when asked how she felt shortly after the final decision, adding the vote could have easily gone another way depending on the judge's decision.
She will serve her first term on the board.
"We have a good board. There's seven of us and we all have different strengths and I believe the seven of us are all going to do good work," said Sacré.
Dorais, while disappointed, said he was happy the recount process worked.
"I don't agree with the judge's determination on each of those ballots, but that's her determination and you have to live with it," said Dorais, who had argued two of the ballots should have been marked as spoiled. In one case, the voter had drawn arrows below the names of candidates, while the other appeared to show more votes than allowed, said Dorais.
"It's agonizingly close, it is, but I'm happy that I went through the process," he added, thanking both the city and Sacré. "The end result is still the same, but the votes were closely scrutinized like they should be when it's this close."
Had the recount resulted in a tie, the winner would have been decided by drawing lots, according to city bylaw.
North Vancouver wasn't the only election to feature a judicial recount this year in B.C., as the village of Pemberton will go to court to determine the winner after two candidates for council were tied at 308 votes on election night. That recount is scheduled to take place today in North Vancouver provincial court.
