GCEA board election concludes, and winner announced Thursday

More votes cast than normal

By Mark Reaman

While we will miss the letters to the paper, the election for the Gunnison County Electric Association District 1 board seat concluded Tuesday evening with the GCEA annual meeting. Results are being tallied by an outside election official and the winner of the seat, either incumbent Greg Wiggins or challenger Frank Stern, will be announced on Thursday, June 22. District 1 includes the town of Crested Butte.

According to the GCEA executive assistant Sherry Shelton, this election has drawn more than the normal number of votes. She said that as of June 16, GCEA’s vote administrator had received 1,433 ballots. “This represents 16% of the 8,921 eligible members,” she said. “In 2019, 1,204 ballots were tabulated and the winner of the seat up for election received 734 to the challenger’s 470 votes.”

According to her historical figures, in 2018 the total number of votes was 1,394 with just a 54 vote margin between candidates. In 2015, 1,145 ballots were tabulated for two contested elections. Shelton said one result was 649 vs. 461 and the other was 572 vs. 569. An automatic recount confirmed the outcome, so it is obvious that every vote counts.

The GCEA will release a press release and post it on its website Thursday declaring the winner of the North Valley seat. The CB News will also announce the winner on its Facebook page.