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Recount confirms Mary-Ann Booth as mayor-elect of West Vancouver

A judicial recount has confirmed that Mary-Ann Booth will be the next mayor of West Vancouver.
A judicial recount has confirmed that Mary-Ann Booth will be the next mayor of West Vancouver. Mary-Ann Booth

It’s official — West Vancouver’s election night results stand, and Mary-Ann Booth will be the district’s next mayor.

A B.C. provincial court judge confirmed the results on Thursday night.

Just 21 votes separated Booth and former West Vancouver mayor Mark Sager on election night on Oct. 20.

Booth said she received confirmation at 8 p.m., after a 12-hour day with candidates, scrutineers and lawyers present.

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“I felt great. 21 votes isn’t a lot, I had confidence in our staff and I had confidence in our machines, but you just never know. That’s not a very wide margin,” she said.

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The recount involved all ballots being electronically recounted, and with 177 ballots recounted manually.

Booth said once all the ballots were counted, both candidates’ vote totals had changed, but the 21-vote spread remained. The final result was 4,397 votes for Booth and 4,376 votes for Sager, she said.

The district has yet to formally announce those results.

The judicial recount was ordered after an application by council hopeful Jim Finkbeiner, who fell just 20 votes short of a seat, and former West Vancouver mayor Michael Smith, who had backed Sager in the race.

As of Thursday night, it was unclear whether Finkbeiner’s status had changed.

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