ONE vote was the difference between the CBH Board having two new directors at the table after the incumbent director in District 4, Trevor Badger was returned by the narrowest of margins.
After distribution of preferences, Mr Badger finished up on 224 votes, just ahead of Royce Taylor who polled 223.
It was a close election with four of the five candidates in that district all receiving strong support in the initial count.
Under the preferential standard voting system, a candidate must poll an absolute majority (more than 50pc) of all formal votes to be elected.
If, after all first preference votes have been counted, no candidate has obtained an absolute majority of all formal votes, then the candidate with the fewest number of first preference votes is excluded (first preference votes are the number 1s).
That excluded candidate’s second preference votes are then distributed to the remaining candidates and so on until one candidate receives an absolute majority.
WA Electoral Commission returning officer Phil Richards said under this system the District 4 vote went to a third distribution of preferences.
“With five candidates, three needed to be knocked out before there was an absolute majority,” Mr Richards said.
“After that distribution of preferences until an absolute majority was received, Mr Badger finished on 224 and Mr Taylor was on 223.”
There will certainly be one new face at the director’s table with Mukinbudin grower Jeff Seaby the successful candidate in District 2.
Along with Mr Badger being re-elected in District 4, fellow sitting director Kevin Fuchsbichler was also re-elected in District 3.
In District 2, Mr Seaby ran against Chris Antonio, Northam, for the seat that became available when current director Derek Clauson announced he would be stepping down from his position on the board at this Friday’s AGM.
Mr Seaby won the election with 210 votes, ahead of Mr Antonio who finished on 179 votes.
Out of the 389 valid votes in the district, Mr Seaby received 53.98 per cent of them.
In District 3, Mr Fuchsbichler, Bruce Rock, ran against Stephen Strange, also of Bruce Rock, and polled 222 votes compared to Mr Strange’s 169.
This equated to Mr Fuchsbichler gaining 56.78pc of the 391 votes, while Mr Strange gained 43.22pc.
- See full story, including comments from some of the key players in this Thursday's Farm Weekly.
