FAYETTE – In a special election held Tuesday, townspeople chose Berndt Graf and Joseph Young as selectmen. Graf got 147 votes and Young received 121.

Gerald Mitchell received 52 votes while Thomas Welch got 50.

Graf has been living in Fayette since the early 1980s. He has experience on the school board at Mount Vernon and was chairman of the town Planning Board. Graf hopes to hire a town manager with municipal government experience who has good computer and accounting skills.

Young, who served on the town’s budget committee for five years, hopes to see budget and accounting issues resolved.

The positions became available after the resignation of David Pollock and Tim Walton last spring.

Town Manager Jim Collins also resigned after residents at the annual town meeting June 12 reduced an administrative budget that included his and other town employees’ salaries by $10,000.

Issues with the town’s accounting system were partly to blame, although not all cited the specific issues as their reasons for leaving.

In July, after the departure of Collins, school Superintendent Briane Coulthard took over as the interim town manager to assure that school and town employees and the towns bills are paid in a timely manner.

The selectmen are interviewing for the town manager position. Three candidates have been selected for second interviews, which will take place Thursday.