Congratulations to all the winning candidates in the 2014 Municipal Election, but most of all, congratulations to the community for the drastic increase in voter turnout.
There were 1,268 votes cast, up from 850 in the 2011 municipal election.
The high number of votes actually had the counting station overwhelmed, resulting in a late night for the counters, Town staff, candidates, and anyone else who dared to stay up until 3:30 a.m. to hear the final tally.
I was up until the bitter end, trying to post updates as they came in. This was my very first experience doing live coverage of an election count. And if any of you get the chance to do the same, don’t. It sucks. I complained every step of the way.
I can’t give enough credit to the counters who painstakingly examined every ballot for seven hours, making sure no mistakes were made.
Having said that, this entire election, even the counting session at the Civic Centre, has been an enlightening experience. There were several positives that came out of it.
The youth of this community got engaged like never before, thanks to a couple of eager young people who took it upon themselves to stress the importance of civic engagement to their demographic. This even included a candidates forum geared specifically towards Golden and Area A voters ages 18 to 25.
Not only that, but a 23-year-old (Eddie Leigan) was voted in with the second highest number of votes. This is the first time I’ve lived in a community where the youth had political representation that young.
The local business community also got involved on voting day, and made an event out of it that included downtown shopping and deals for everyone who made it out to the voting booths.
Several of the candidates for the Town of Golden seemed to fall into two categories: those who think Golden is heading down the right path, and those who were concerned that the municipality is in financial trouble, and needs to make some changes.
The majority of winning candidates fell into the first group, which leads me to believe that the people of Golden are feeling optimistic about Golden’s future.
All in all I’d say it was a very successful election, but now the real work begins. Good luck to all the candidates.
