Hurricane council unanimously accepts certified election results; turnout and winners announced

The City of Hurricane council on Monday unanimously approved a motion to accept the certified results of the recent municipal election.

Cindy, the city election official, presented the vote totals and turnout figures before the vote. "We have 13,165 registered voters," Cindy said, adding that 5,956 ballots were counted: 5,725 mail-in ballots, 23 early in-person ballots, 202 in-person on election day, one overseas ballot and five provisional ballots. She said 79 ballots were challenged and 59 were ultimately rejected because voters did not cure deficiencies; 20 voters cured their ballots after notification.

Cindy also announced the winners in the mayoral and city council contests. "For your mayor race, we have Clark Fawcett with 3,941 votes, followed by Nanette Billings with 1,996 votes," she said. For city council seats, she reported Dave Emley with 3,669 votes, Lynn Exel with 2,872, Michael Hershey with 2,396 and Kevin Thomas with 1,960. A precinct-level breakdown was provided to the council.

Councilman Thomas moved to accept the results and Councilman Ellerman seconded. The council voted in favor, with the chair declaring the motion unanimous.

The council also discussed turnout comparisons and requested that Cindy pull prior-election numbers for distribution to council members. Councilors raised interest in precinct-level visualization tools that would combine election data with GIS mapping to show geographic voting patterns, an idea Cindy said could be explored after the election data are finalized.

The acceptance of the results concluded the formal certification on the council's agenda; the body then moved on to other business.