Incumbent Cedar Lake councilman squeaks past challenger

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Updated: November 24, 2011 3:34AM

CEDAR LAKE — Incumbent town councilman John Foreman narrowly squeaked by challenger Marilyn Kaper with a 16-vote margin in a tight race for the Republican Ward 2 nomination.

Foreman finished with 266 votes, or 51.55 percent of the total, against Kaper with 250 votes, 48.45 percent of the total.

Sally LaSota, director for the Lake County Board of Elections and Registration, said Wednesday all of the votes from Precinct 6 where one voting machine froze have been included in the unofficial totals.

LaSota said the machine froze around 5 p.m. Voters were then directed to use the second machine at the site until the polls closed. Mechanics were dispatched to the precinct and the machine was returned to the election office, where votes cast before the machine froze were tallied.

The unofficial total includes absentee ballots but does not include provisional ballots. She said it isn’t likely there will be enough provisional ballots to impact the outcome.

On Wednesday Foreman said he wanted to thank all of his supporters.

“I think I proved I’m not just a politician and I worked hard to do what was right for the betterment of the town,” he said.