How'd we do?

Kathy Bockus/Courier

New St. Stephen Mayor Designate Jed Purcell celebrates with his wife, Pat, left and his daughter, Aaron Naccarato, right.


You voted, we voted, everyone voted on Monday and the Courier's coverage of the 2008 municipal election night is on newsstands now.

Two reporters, five election races, a few hours of time to work with... so, what do you think? Leave a comment or e-mail editor@stcroixcourier.ca

Election coverage was a little different this year due to automated vote counting - an efficient and awesome innovation that's going to be a standard soon. Normally the press and candidates sweat out election night together at the returning office. Votes are phoned in from the polls and an election worker writes the numbers on a mural in magic marker. We all do the math and hours later a winner emerges.

It was always handy to have most of the candidates in one place on election night but this year the rules changed. The candidates were spread all over Charlotte County but our news team of Kathy Bockus and Barb Rayner tracked them down.

We opted to go with Jed Purcell as our front page photo for a few reasons - 1. St. Stephen is still our biggest reader base; 2. Purcell's win was unique in that he defeated an experienced, veteran incumbent in Allan Gillmor while the rest of the county voted their incumbents back in and 3. It was a great photo that captured the spirit of last night's celebrations.

St. George and its new mayor, Sharon Tucker, became our line story because Tucker (or Ronnie Cousins had she won) made history as the Granite Town's first female mayor.

The Black Folder of Secrecy

Elections NB made a Canadian first today with its province-wide electronic voting system. Ballots were handed out not as slips of folded paper with golf-course-style mini pencils but in large, black privacy folders with Sharpie markers to colour in the ballot for easy computer reading.
The computerization of the vote means numbers are coming in fast and furious and they're being zapped directly to a web site, meaning the candidates aren't huddled with the press sweating out the results in some sparse backroom of a returning office picking from a meat and cheese tray.
Instead the press, at least some of the press, are at home watching the hockey game. I mean the election results. OK. Both.

Courier Weekend - Friday, May 9, 2008

It's Thursday afternoon, 3:53 p.m. and the Courier Weekend is just about ready for press. That means if you're, say, a candidate in the May 12 municipal election this would be an excellent time for you to steal something, punch something or run naked through town. We don't publish again until after the election.