Fair Haven has a new mayor. His name is Lincoln and he’s a goat.
Lincoln beat his opponent by three votes.
But the election was kind of a farce. That’s because Fair Haven doesn’t actually have a mayor.
The vote was really a fundraiser to build a new playground. They didn’t meet their goal but they did learn about civics.
“Kids got to vote. So when they went to the polling place with their parents, they were able to participate,” said Christopher Stanton, Lincoln’s owner.
“It was a nice opportunity, you know, he got his ‘I voted’ sticker,” said Molly Clark, who nominated Lincoln.
Lincoln will not be required to run town meetings or sign any ordinances. But since he’s a public servant, he’s scheduled to attend a number of public events over the next year.
Sixteen pets were on the ballot. Most were dogs and cats. A gerbil named Crystal also was a candidate.
In Tuesday’s poll, Lincoln was victorious over 15 other candidates, including Crystal the gerbil and many dogs and cats.
Fair Haven has no official mayor but the town manager, Joseph Gunter, holds similar functions.
When Gunter read in a newspaper that the village of Omena, Michigan, had made Sweet Tart the cat its “top” official, he got the idea to organize a similar election to raise funds for building a playground.
Lincoln’s 13 votes were enough for him to squeak past Sammie the dog.
The goat, which belongs to a school math teacher, will get an education in the town’s major festivals, which it will represent during its one-year mandate: “Memorial Day parade, the Apple Fest and the events we organize every Friday in the summer,” Gunter says.
Although the playground fundraising effort only generated about $100, at $5 per candidate, Gunter isn’t bleating because he says the animal election was also “a good way to get the kids involved in local government.”
With 53 votes cast the turnout was low, Gunter admits, “but it was the first time, we expect it to be better next year.”
That happens to be the year that U.S. voters will also elect a human president, in a contest expected to shake out like a barnyard brawl.
