After eight weeks of candidates making their case to the voters, Estevan has made their choice and elected a new City Council yesterday.
Anthony Sernick has won the city's top job in a close race against former councillor Rebecca Foord and first-time candidate Zacch Vandenhurk, raking in 1,254 votes. In the councillors race, two incumbents survived reelection and one former councillor earned his seat back.
- *Shelly Veroba - 2,175 votes
- *Kirsten Walliser - 1,992 votes
- Brian Johnson - 1,762 votes
- Dave Elliot - 1,464 votes
- Tom Mauss - 1,233 votes
- Mathew Dubowski - 1,048 votes
* = incumbent
"I am elated that the election came off well. I want to thank all of my election workers. Without them, this wouldn't have been the success that it is. I'm happy that, you know, everybody has stepped up, voted and put their best foot forward," expressed City Clerk Judy Pilloud.
According to Pilloud, the voter turnout for this year's election was great. While we don't have official numbers yet, all polling stations were busy. Both drive-thru voting locations at the Estevan Fire Hall and Suds Zone Car Wash saw massive lines and drew crowds eager to vote. At the super poll inside the Church of God, people were still lined up past the 8:00 p.m. deadline. As the votes were being tallied last night, she made a note that they even ran out of ballots at the super poll. Numbers from advanced polling and the drive-thrus came in first, with the super poll results not being finalized until close to 9:00 p.m.
"Voter turnout was amazing. It was very slow with advanced polls, and our drive-thrus were very quiet in the morning. I was very concerned, but everybody showed up at the super poll and those workers worked very hard to get everybody through the polls that needed to."
On the ballot this year was a plebiscite, which looked to gauge interest from the community on whether they'd support the construction of a new ice surface. It's been a hot-button topic that saw the Estevan Minor Hockey Association pleading the benefits to the public, while the other rinks around Estevan proposed other alternatives. 1,538 voters chose not to support the initiative, compared to 1,046 that were in favour. This means, for now, a new ice surface will not see the light of day.
"Typically any kind of question that you put on the ballot will bring out voters because they want to be able to have their vote on yes or no," Pilloud said.
So, what's next? City Hall will be going through all of the votes today to certify the ballots and the official count will be announced later today at 1:00 p.m. The new mayor and the slate of councillors will be sworn in on Friday, November 15 at 4:00 p.m. inside Council's Chambers. Next week, the councillors will go through training, as their first Council meeting in the term is slated for November 25.