Trustee candidate wants recount after losing by 11 votes
Samantha Craggs | CBC News | Posted: October 29, 2014 4:31 PM | Last Updated: October 29, 2014
A Hamilton public school board trustee candidate is asking for a recount after coming second in his Flamborough race by a margin of 11 votes.
Nick Lauwers, a Waterdown therapist, earned 2,126 votes in the Ward 15 race for Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB).
Penny Deathe, also of Waterdown, got 2,137 votes.
That’s a difference of a little more than one vote for each of the ward’s 10 polls, Lauwers said.
“For anybody who has worked as hard as I feel I’ve worked in this election, and for the people and for what I want to represent, to leave it at 11 votes without looking into it further would be an injustice, I believe.”
Election returns don’t show how many ballots were rejected, spoiled or miscounted by the tabulating machines, so “unanswered questions remain,” he wrote in a letter to HWDSB director John Malloy on Wednesday morning.
Lauwers says he sees a discrepancy between the number of votes cast at Ward 15 advance polls and the number reported on election night, and he’d like to know why.
Boards have 30 days after the Oct. 27 election to ask the city clerk for a recount, and “I would respectively request” the board do so, Lauwers said.
Under the Municipal Elections Act, recounts are only automatic in the event of a tie, said city spokesperson Mike Kirkopoulos.
But a recount can happen if the school board passes a resolution asking for it. A candidate can also apply to the Superior Court of Justice to ask for a recount.
This is the only recount request after Monday's election, Kirkopoulos said. The length of time varies, he said, but the Flamborough one will be relatively quick because of the size of the ward.
Deathe is a Waterdown community youth development co-ordinator for the organization Healthy Community, Healthy Youth.
Lauwers has a right to ask for a recount, she said. It just puts her in a kind of limbo. She’s already planning to attend a trustee orientation session next week.
“It’s hard because in the community’s minds and in people’s minds, I’ve been elected,” she said. “I’ve been answering tons and tons of support and thank you’s and congratulations.”
Lauwers says if he lost, he'll accept that. He just needs to know for sure.
"I could have been beaten by more, or I could have won by 100," he said. "What we’re pursuing, more than anything, is the truth."
Here are the other public school board trustees:
- Wards 1 and 2: Christine Bingham
- Ward 3: Larry Pattison
- Ward 4: Ray Mulholland (incumbent)
- Ward 5: Todd White (incumbent)
- Ward 6: Kathy Archer
- Ward 7: Dawn Danko
- Ward 8: Wes Hicks (incumbent)
- Wards 9 and 10: Jeff Beattie
- Wards 11 and 12: Alex Johnstone (incumbent)
- Wards 13 and 14: Greg Van Geffen
Here are the Catholic school board trustees:
- Wards 1 and 2: Mark Valvasori (incumbent)
- Wards 3 and 4: Anthony Perri
- Ward 5: Aldo D'Intino
- Ward 6: Joseph Baiardo
- Ward 7: Patrick Daly (acclaimed, incumbent)
- Ward 8: John Valvasori (incumbent)
- Wards 9, 10 and 11: Paul DiFranceso, Mary Nardini (incumbents)
- Wards 12, 13, 14, 15: Carolyn Cornale (acclaimed, incumbent)