PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — With the second-place winner in a five-way City Council race decided by just 16 votes, Don Gardner, the third-runner up, has requested a recount.
Craig Green and Kevin Freeman won the majority of the votes for two open seats on the Presque Isle City Council during the Nov. 8 general election. Green, re-elected to his second full-term, earned 34 percent of the vote and Freeman 17.7 percent — while Gardner earned 17.4 percent of the vote (16 votes less than Freeman), Gene Cronin 16 percent and Jacqueline Goodine 14 percent.
“With a difference of only 16 votes it was only reasonable,” Gardner said, of his recount request.
The recount would be complete by the start of the next term in January. As the vote was originally tallied, Gardner, a former city councilor for 12 years, lost by a fraction of a percent to Freeman, a first-time council candidate.
In a candidates’ forum held before the election, both raised similar themes of bringing more fiscal restraint to city spending, and Freeman said that he appreciated Gardner’s previous work on the council.
