The Bellville City Council met on Friday to canvass the votes from the election for city council.  There were three races that took place; Alderman Position 1, Position 3, & Position 5. 

Alderman, Position 5 candidate Garrett Dornon was the only candidate in that race.

Alderman, Position 1 was a three-way race between the incumbent Wayne Browning and the challengers Dallas Bozich and former city secretary Betty Hollon.  Betty Hollon was declared the winner with a total of 216 votes to the nearest challenger Wayne Browning’s 181 votes.

Alderman, Position 3 was a two way race between incumbent Ashley Slater and challenger Robert “Bob” Hancock. This race was very close and ended up being disputed because the spread between votes was 194 to 201 with 15 mail-in ballots in dispute.

Following the canvassing of the votes, Delwin Rettig rose for a point of order and expressed his concerns with the close margin and the 15 mail-in-ballots that were in dispute.  (this can be viewed at the 00:19:00 mark of the video).  Mr. Rettig’s primary contention with the mail-in-ballots was the claim that there was a failure to put a return address on the carrier envelopes provided to the voters who did early voting mail-in ballots.  The entire exchange and process can be viewed in the video below of the council meeting and canvassing of the votes.

Floating Vimeo Video