Nearly 72 hours after the polls closed, Brad Bourn won the District Six Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board seat Friday, the final winner to be declared in the 2013 ranked-choice vote process.
The outcome was announced at about 7 p.m., culminating three long days of counting votes, eliminating candidates, redistributing their votes and doing it all over again. The park board count followed a two-day count in the mayor's race, and the final sorting in the run for Board of Estimate and Taxation.
Incumbent board President John Erwin was reelected to his at-large seat on the park board. At-large commisisoner Annie Young, a board member since 1989, was also re-elected.
Meg Forney was declared winner of the third at-large seat at about 6:30 p.m. Friday, after former board President Tom Nordyke was eliminated. Nordyke was running for the seat he lost in 2009.
It was Forney's fourth run for the board. She called the ranked-choice process "fascinating," and said it helped that she was running for an open seat and not against a DFL-endorsed candidate. She filed to run when long-time incumbent Bob Fine decided to leave the board and run for mayor.
Forney joins Steffanie Musich as the newcomers on the nine-member board. Musich was unopposed for the seat being vacated by Carol Kummer.
Forney noted that the outcome contrasts sharply with that for city council, where seven of 13 members will be newcomers.
"The new council is like the kids, and the park board is like the parents," said Forney, 64. "Hopefully we're going to be a stable and productive board."
