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After recount, Truesdell still in the race

By Caroline Trowbridge - | Mar 5, 2003

Jim Truesdell hopes last week’s city council tie vote will serve as a wake-up call.

In the primary election, in which voters were asked to vote for four city council candidates, Truesdell, and Mike Weston each garnered 80 votes.

When the provisional ballots were counted Friday, Truesdell gained one vote, meaning he and the three other top contenders will vie for two city council seats in the April 1 election.

“I think this will help remind people that every single vote does count,” Truesdell said.

Mike Weston knows that for sure. His wife, Susan, who usually votes in elections, didn’t have time to vote last Tuesday.

“By the time I got home, Mike said ‘Did you vote?’ and I said no, but I’ve got five minutes,” Susan Weston said. “He said ‘You can’t make it there by then — there will probably be a tie.'”

But Weston was taking it all in stride when interviewed Tuesday.

“I plan to run again,” Mike Weston said. “I’ve already visited with a few people.”

Weston serves on the city’s site review committee and is contemplating switching over to the planning and zoning committee.

Being active in the community he’s called home for 14 years is only natural, he said.

“My hope and objective is to serve,” Weston said. “There’s certain things that are our civic duty.”

Truesdell said the election process is just beginning to sink in.

“For me it’s been a first-time thing,” Truesdell said. “It’s been kind of a whirlwind. It’s been pretty exciting, and of course I was excited to win — by a vote.”

Turnout in Tonganoxie for the Feb. 25 primary election was 16.8 percent, with 187 ballots counted in the city’s south precinct, and 101 ballots counted in the north precinct. A total of 1,706 people are registered to vote in Tonganoxie, according to Janet Klasinski, deputy Leavenworth County clerk.

Turnout throughout the county was even lighter, Klasinski said, with about 10.6 of registered voters casting ballots.

On Friday, the Leavenworth County Commission canvassed the results of the election. When county officials tallied the four provisional ballots, Truesdell received one vote.

“Because of these provisional ballots, there’s no longer a tie, and James Truesdell will go on to the general election,” Klasinski told commissioners.