Fortin calling for recount

Harry Gough edges incumbent by one vote: 804-803

Peachland Mayor Cindy Fortin is going to ask for a recount after losing re-election by one vote.

Harry Gough, a former grocery store owner, won 804 votes on Saturday, to Fortin’s 803 votes.

“I did ask for a recount and the double-checking of (voter) addresses, because one vote could make a difference,” Fortin wrote on her Facebook page.

“I don’t know if I will get it it, but felt that I had to ask for one since it was so close, so I will wait to concede or not based on what the outcome of that is.”

At this stage, however, Fortin does not legally have the ability to ask for a judicial recount, as results provided on election night are considered to be preliminary.

In Peachland, as in all B.C. municipalities, officials who oversaw Saturday’s election will spend some time reviewing the ballots before declaring the results to be official. As in other Central Okanagan communities, voting in Peachland was conducted with the use of marked paper ballots which were then fed into an electronic tabulator.

The deadline for election results to be declared official is 4 p.m. on Wednesday.

There is no automatic provision for a judicial recount of votes cast in a municipal election in B.C. no matter how small a candidate’s margin of victory may be. Should Gough’s one-vote victory be declared official, Fortin would have until next Monday, Nov. 29, to ask for a judicial recount. A recount would have to be completed by Dec. 2.

The most divisive issue in the Peachland election was the current council’s approval, accomplished through a re-writing of the official community plan, to allow a fivestorey mixed use building on Beach Avenue.

Critics said it was too high and would ruin the pedestrian-oriented nature of the lakeside street.

Gough was among the mayoral candidates who said he would support a revision of the OCP re-affirming a three-storey limit for new buildings on Beach Avenue.