At 1:23 this morning, Dean Sayers was announced as the new chief of Batchewana First Nation, by the widest margin in recent memory.
"I announce on behalf of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, that Dean Sayers is now the official and recognized chief of Batchewana First Nation," said Electoral Officer Vaughn Johnston. "He takes the office of chief from this moment on until such time as he is or may be voted out of the office."
Sayers said he will get right to work starting this morning.
His first order of business will be to consult with staff to find out what issues are most pressing and set up an agenda for Band Council's next meeting.
The final count in last night's election was:
Dean Sayers - 406 votes Vernon (Champ) Syrette - 281 votes Judy Syrette - 91 votes John (Duke) Corbiere - 61 votes
Vote counting began around midnight to determine the winner of yesterday's federally-ordered byelection.
Between 55 and 65 people were in the Thunderbird Room through ost of last night and into the wee hours of this morning.
They sat quietly listening as Johnston read aloud the vote on each ballot.
Gail Restoule, a manager from the Departent of Indian and Northern Affairs, pulled each ballot from a box marked 'Votes for Chief', opened each of them and passed them to Johnston.
He smoothed the ballots on the table for the six scrutineers and the deputy electoral officer to see as he called out the name of the candidate voted for.
Before the ballots were counted, approximately 40 observers and scrutineers gathered in the same room while mail-in ballots were opened and checked.
At 8:15 p.m., federal Electoral Officer Johnston, Restoule and Deputy Electoral Officer Veronica McLeod began opening and recording mail-in ballots.
They visually inspected ballots to ensure that both the ballots and the signed declarations accompanying them met Indian and Northern Affairs standards.
Ballots that met the criteria were inserted into the ballot box with votes from people who came to the polling station yesterday in person.
Counting of ballots commenced only after all mail-in ballots had been opened and scrutinized.
The polling station closed at 8 p.m. last night.
Band Councillor Greg Agawa said 464 individuals voted in person at the Rankin Arena, including one woman who drove all the way from London to cast her vote, hand-delivering the votes of her two grown children.
Agawa said the woman told him she thought it was very important to vote but she didn't trust the mail ballot system so she drove up.
29 mail-in ballots were found to be spoiled and were rejected.
A total of 839 ballots were counted.
Yesterday on SooToday.com