Princeton council seat determined by a draw
Published 3:58 pm Tuesday, October 27, 2026
It came down to a draw, more than a week after the local government election, to determine the final seat in the Princeton town council election.
The election was held on Oct. 17, but the vote resulted in a tie for the fourth of four councillor seats.
On Oct. 26, Carrie Kassa, chief election officer for Princeton, declared Tyler Willis elected as councillor following a judicial recount lot draw.
In the election, held on Oct. 14, Willis and Paula Shackleton were tied for the fourth spot on council, with each receiving 391 votes.
Because of the tie, the decision was referred to a judicial recount. This involved recounting the ballots for the two councillors once more. Then, since the vote was still a tie, the winner was determined by a lot draw.
This will be third term on council for Willis. He was elected in 2018 and 2022.
The others on the Princeton town council are Spencer Coyne as mayor and Barb Gould, Doug Pateman and George Elliott as councillors.
Coyne, Gould and Elliott were all members of the past council, while Pateman was a councillor from 2014 to 2018.
In the Princeton election, 1,053 ballots were cast. There were an estimated 2,571 eligible voters.
There were nine candidates for town council.
Gould finished 690 votes, followed by Pateman with 575 votes and Elliott with 501 votes.
The remaining candidates were Amanda Werry with 375 votes, incumbent Randy McLean with 336 votes, Dayton Wales with 325 votes and Chris Obey with 290 votes.
In past years, Princeton has had other close elections.
In 2008, Marilyn Harkness took the fourth seat on the council with 385 votes, just two more than fifth-place candidate Dina Slowikowski-Campbell.
In 2011, Kim Maynard took the fourth spot with 465 votes, just 20 more than fifth-place candidate Ray Jarvis.