By CRAIG FREILICH

CANTON – The newly elected Mayor of Canton says she wants to appoint the third-place finisher in the election for trustee to serve the balance of her trustee term.

Brooke James Rouse, who finished third in the two-seat trustee contest, is to serve out the one year remaining in new mayor Mary Ann Ashley’s trusteeship.

Rouse’s tally was 445 votes on election night behind successful candidates Carol Pynchon with 519 votes and Michael Dalton with 469 votes, while Nick Kocher got 326 votes.

It had been thought that the closeness of the counts of Dalton and Rouse – only 24 votes separated them – might be reversed when absentee ballots were counted Friday, but Dalton added 37 absentees to his count while Rouse added only 32.

“The voters stepped up and made their choices,” Ashley said in announcing her choice.

“It only makes sense” to appoint Rouse, Ashley said, because of the closeness to success of her election effort.

The appointment is up to the mayor, and is not subject to approval by the board.

Ashley, a Republican, was offered the nomination of the village Democratic Committee after she failed to wrest the GOP nomination from incumbent Republican Mayor David Curry.

Ashley won easily, with 676 votes to Curry’s 316, absentee votes now included.

The mayor and trustees will be sworn in at 6 p.m. Dec. 2 in the Municipal Building on Main Street. The public is invited.