Tie-breaker: Roll the dice

Ward 4 City Council candidates each got 80 votes in primary

By RICK GREEN, LACONIA DAILY SUN

LACONIA — With 80 votes apiece, Mark Haynes and Breanna Henderson will need to rely on lady luck to settle their contest for second place in the Ward 4 City Council primary.

Longtime incumbent Brenda Baer finished first with 130 votes on Tuesday, ensuring she will appear on the Nov. 7 general election ballot. The top two candidates in the primary advance to the general election.

Baer's opponent will be either Haynes or Henderson, to be “determined by lot,” as required under state law.

City Clerk Mary Reynolds said they will roll dice at City Hall at 3 p.m. Thursday to determine the winner. The highest number wins. If they tie, they will roll again.

Haynes said he is no dice player.

“And I'm not very lucky either,” he said.

He said the tie shows just how important it is to vote.

“It shows you every vote counts,” he said.

There are 1,739 registered voters in Ward 4 and 302 votes were cast, for a turnout of 17 percent.

Haynes and Henderson both said they have no intention of requesting a recount.

Henderson said she wasn't surprised at the tie.

“Nothing really surprises me in politics any more,” she said Wednesday. “I am amused.”

In other City Council primaries, Ward 2 incumbent Councilor David Bownes advanced to the general election along with Richard Beaudoin, an electronics repair shop owner.

In Ward 1, the two candidates to advance to the general election were Susan Hodgkins, a real estate agent, and Bruce Cheney, a former Laconia police chief and the man largely responsible for developing the state’s 911 system.

Meanwhile, Mayor Ed Engler, Ward 3 Councilor Henry Lipman and Ward 5 Councilor Robert Hamel face no competition. Ward 6 Councilor Armand Bolduc is being challenged by restaurateur Reuben Bassett, but since there are only two candidates in that race, there was no need for a primary.