The Allen County Board of Elections met Monday morning for an official count of the general election, confirming Fifth Ward council member Jamie Dixon as the new Lima City Council president.
Precious Grundy | The Lima News
LIMA — After a final tally, Fifth Ward Council Member Jamie Dixon was officially elected as the Lima City Council president. The Allen County Board of Elections met Monday morning to certify the general election. The board overviewed the provisional ballots to determine the official winner.
“I would like to say to both gentlemen you did a fine job on the races,” Allen County Board of Elections Keith Cheney said. “You did a a very good job representing yourself, ultimately representing our city. There will not be a recount based on totals. Mr. Dixon has 3,196 votes Mr. Gordon 3,141.”
On election night, First Ward Council Member Todd Gordon and Dixon had only a difference of 15 votes. Dixon was in the lead on election night but 157 provisional ballots still needed processing.
“I am going to keep working for the First Ward and for the city,” Gordon said. “We had a good and clean race. I think that a lot of the higher-up politicians have to take a little lesson from running a clean campaign because we both did that. I’m proud of my team and I’m proud of Jamie.”
Dixon shared he felt ‘overwhelmed and surprised’ at the final decision of the city.
“As Todd said, what the nation should look at, is how to run a clean race without any mudslinging or badgering of each other,” Dixon said. “Being able to walk away from the race (no matter the outcome) as friends — I would also like to say that democracy does work. We know that every vote matters and today sends a message throughout our city. When we were knocking on doors, people talked about why they were not registered or why they did not participate in democracy — today we got to see those voices be heard from a local race.”
Dixon said as the newly elected president he hopes to continue to “review the council rules” and take the meetings outside of the chambers.
“I would like to work with our media team at the city as well as our administration and see what we can do to take a city council outside the walls of 50 Town Square,” Dixon said. “To make sure we can get more citizen participation throughout this process and getting them to be more embedded in local government.”
Reach Precious Grundy at 567-242-0351.
