BANGOR, Maine — Bangor residents elected one incumbent, one former member and one newcomer to the Bangor City Council during an election that kept ballot counters at the Civic Center into the early morning hours on Wednesday.
Counting of ballots continued until until nearly 5 a.m. Wednesday, according to City Clerk Lisa Goodwin, but unofficial results showed that incumbent Patricia Blanchette, former Councilor David Nealley and Pauline Civiello earned spots on the council.
Blanchette got 5,478 votes, Civiello 5,343, Nealley 5,091, Richard Bruns 4,659, Megan Shorette 4,464, Kenneth Huhn 3,778, and Chelsea Prybylo 1,961.
Voters also elected two new members to Bangor School Committee. Sarah Smiley, a columnist for the BDN, earned one spot with 8,724 votes, with Marc Eastman winning the second seat with 5,559 votes. James Moore had 4,449 votes, and fell short of a seat on the committee.
Ballot counting ran late because a large number of voters came at the last minute and needed to register. Five minutes before the polls were scheduled to close at 8 p.m., more than 100 people were lined up waiting to vote, according to Goodwin.
“We had such an influx of new registrations at the end that it really set back our counting,” she said.
The new councilors will be sworn in at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, in the City Council chambers, City Manager Cathy Conlow said Tuesday. They will take part in their first meeting later that evening.
A third school committee seat left open by the Oct. 9 resignation of former school committee member Kate Dickerson will remain vacant until the November 2013 election.
Bangor voters also approved a pair of amendments to the city charter. One requires voter ratification of City Council action to borrow money under certain circumstances. The other changes the name of the undesignated fund to the “unassigned fund” and increases the amount of money required to be stored in that fund.
Congratulations Pauline. Many of us are looking forward to a fresh breath of integrity. Excellent campaign.
The funny thing is that this tea party candidate only won because she had the largest signs placed around town.
Really? The ” tea party” candidate had the support of her party and it had nothing to do with sign size. If that’s true then you are not saying much for the non tea party voter except they are to numb to make a decision unless there is a big pink sign staring at them. Your theory doesnt hold water ( not many have) given the fact Bruns had the same size sign. Keep posting though, you are one of the few that make me laugh out loud.
Been to any casinos in mass lately. Haha.
I have complete confidence in the public’s ability to vote for someone based solely on the name recognition that they derive from seeing signs littered all over town. Let’s not delude ourselves into believing that the Tea Party candidate was elected because of her positions on the issues. And the candidate herself knows this – hence the multitude of over-sized pink signs.
No totals for the charter amendments?
Ryan,
You can see those totals at http://maineelections.bangordailynews.com/?County=Penobscot+County&Town=Bangor.
The totals should be in the story itself.
Regardless, the master results keep crashing Internet Explorer 9, both the 32-bit, and 64-bit versions. The same thing happens when I try to access the results from WLBZ’s site. (Excuse me, WCSH…)
There is your problem. Internet Explorer. :)
Congratulations Mrs. Smiley!
Smiley and Eastman both received more votes than Guerrette, Szal, or Caruso in their elections last year.
Really, now who voted for Blanchette, honestly she needs to be ousted from there. She is horrible on the council
It was a great field of candidates. The citizens of Bangor were fortunate to have so many difficult decisions in selecting their municipal officers. Congrats to Blanchette, Nealley, Civiello, Eastman and Smiley. Name recognition – whether it is from one’s job as a columnist or from the number of signs posted – is part of politics. Bangor will be well served if some of the candidates who did not win a seat in 2012 try again.