MECHANIC FALLS – Town Council Chairman William Diehl, the top voter-getter Monday night, won another term while Richard Wing unseated incumbent Walter Lowe by two votes.

Within minutes after polls closed at 8 p.m. for the local election, the voting machine printed out the results of 138 ballots cast that day.

Diehl received 77 votes, Wing came in with 63, Lowe with 61, and Jeffrey White with 46 votes.

The other elected positions slated on this year’s ballot went to unopposed candidates. Marchian Crane will serve another two-year term on the Town Council, Michael Baird and Gloria Diehl will serve three-year terms on the Sanitary District, and David Griffiths and Lena Schmitz each won another three-year term on the School Committee.

Diehl has served as councilman since 1985 with a one-term hiatus due to the town’s limit of three successive terms, each for three years. This year’s election gives Diehl another third term.

Wing previously had served on the council for 18 years during the 1950s and 1960s.

Town Clerk Shirley Marquis and elections workers Jean Kobeckis and Nancy Petersons said that voter turnout had been light but steady throughout the day. Ballots cast on Monday represented about 7 percent of the 1,890 registered voters in Mechanic Falls, according to town records.

The largest voter turn-out in the past five years was the November 2000 presidential election when 1,424 showed up at the polls. Last year’s local election brought out 130 voters.

“We never get a big turnout for the local elections,” said Marquis. “And candidates don’t usually wait around for us to count the votes.”

Marquis made a round of phone calls after verifying the votes to let the four opposing council candidates know the election results.


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