By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM -- Potsdam resident Maggie McKenna is now officially the winner of the third seat to be filled on the Potsdam Village Board of Trustees.

In Colton, the final tally showed the second of two seats going to an incumbent by one vote.

There were close elections in Hopkinton and Parishville, but the final tallies, after counting absentee and military ballots, did not change the order of apparent winners on election night.

The St. Lawrence County Board of Elections has certified the countywide results of the Nov. 7 election and posted them on their web site. There is a link to the results at https://www.stlawco.org/Departments/BoardofElections/

McKenna ran a write-in campaign for an open Potsdam village board seat against Rebecca Dufour, the only other publicly announced write-in candidate.

McKenna received 151 write-in votes and Dufour got 37 votes. The Board of Elections also reports that other community members got write-in votes, but they were so few that they were not included in the official tally.

McKenna, adult program coordinator at the Potsdam Public Library, said Tuesday that her efforts will be toward “improving communication between the board and the general public, and getting more people involved in goings-on in the village.” She also said she would work on beautification and improving rental properties.

Two of the three seats up for election to the village board went to Democratic incumbents, Steve Warr and Abby Lee, who were listed on the ballot. The third seat to be filled was that of trustee and former Mayor Ruth Garner, who died in October.

In Hopkinton, where proposed wind generators have divided the community, the race for two town council seats was a squeaker, with 16 votes separating the top vote-getter and the fourth place finisher.

The seats were won by won by Democrat Kelly Pullano, who ended up with 185 votes, and Republican incumbent Gilbert Sochia, with 182. Two other candidates came close in the tally but finished out of the running. Incumbent Republican Greg Crump got 179 votes and Democrat Janice Pease received 169.

In Parishville, Republican incumbent Conrad D. Cooke, with 459 votes, and Democrat Tom Demo, with 383, won a four-way race for two town council seats. Republican Corey L. Sheldon received 379 and Cassie M. Hayes, who listed no party affiliation, got 111.

On election night, only nine votes separated the second place finisher Demo with 349 votes, and third place vote-getter Sheldon, with 340 votes.

In Colton, four candidates were running for two council seats, and the race between the second and third place vote-getters was close on election night.

That night, Lisa Fisher-Davis was top vote getter with 391 votes, incumbent Grace Hawley had 264, Harold Granger had 254 votes, and Donald Shoen was fourth with 177.

The official count released Tuesday showed Fisher-Davis easily winning a seat finishing with 432 votes, and incumbent Hawley taking the second seat by one vote with 288 votes to Granger's 287 votes. Finishing last was Shoen with 202 votes.

“Well, that was a close race, wasn’t it?” Granger said when told of the result.

He said he would not challenge the election board’s count.

“I will trust the result. I’m sure they counted it plenty of times.

“I’m 81 years old, so to get that many votes I guess I did all right,” Granger said.