It took a recount – and a random draw – for the makeup of Hay River's new town council to be finalized.
When all was said and down, Joe Melanson claimed the final seat on council, while Sandra Patterson-Lester missed out by the narrowest of margins.
After election day on Oct. 15, an automatic recount became necessary after the three candidates with the lowest vote tallies – Melanson (452 votes), Patterson-Lester (451 votes) and Jeff Groenewegen (454 votes) – finished within four votes of each other.
The recount on Oct. 16 slightly changed those numbers with Groenewegen collecting 455 votes, while Melanson and Patterson-Lester were tied with 450 votes.
That meant the tie would be broken by a random draw as allowed by the Local Authorities Elections Act.
Melanson admitted it was an unusual way to decide an election.
"But you have to resolve it somehow, right?" he said. "I mean going into it you know one of us is going to lose and we both agreed and we shook hands. I'm glad I came out on top, but I kind of feel sorry for the way Sandra went, too."
Patterson-Lester said it was apparent during the initial count and the recount that the vote would be very close for the last seat on council and a tie might have to be broken in some way.
"We were joking about Rock, Paper, Scissors," she noted. "We knew all the way through that we were probably going to have to do something like toss a coin or whatever."
However, when a tie did take place, she and Melanson were informed of the provision in the Local Authorities Elections Act.
The random draw was conducted by Heather Coakwell, the returning officer for the Town of Hay River.
"That's pretty unusual," Coakwell said. "I haven't seen it before. It doesn't mean it hasn't happened, I suppose. They do have legislation for it just in case it does, but it's not very common."
For the random draw, the two candidates' names were written on identical pieces of paper and placed in a box.
Coakwell drew one of the pieces of paper containing Melanson's name.
"That person will be considered the winner and they will be declared as having one more vote than the other person," said the returning officer.
Patterson-Lester said it just goes to show that every vote counts.
She noted there were people that she could have brought to the polling station on election day, but didn't, partly because her friends and acquaintances were telling her that they were confident she was going to be elected.
"Somebody said I'd have to come get them and I thought I'm not going to inconvenience them," she said. "So in a way you can look back and beat yourself up over it, but I'm not going to beat myself up over this."
Patterson-Lester noted one thing she did find "disconcerting" about the election was the voter turnout of slightly under 40 per cent, which she said indicated voter apathy, possibly because there was no election for mayor.
There were 915 people who voted from the 2,289 on the voters list, plus some who were added on election day.
Kandis Jameson was acclaimed to replace Mayor Brad Mapes, who did not seek re-election.
Along with Groenewegen and Melanson, the new council will consist of Steve Anderson, Linda Duford, Keith Dohey, Robert Bouchard, Emily Chambers and Brian Willows.