Candidate councilor Thomas van Os of Gemeentebelangen Heusden was firmly convinced that mistakes had been made during the counting of votes in recent municipal elections. That turns out to be true: his 21 votes had accidentally ended up with someone else.
Thomas had gone to the village hall ‘t Patronaat in Nieuwkuijk and voted for himself. His wife also colored the dot red next to his name, he previously told Omroep Brabant.
Sound the alarm
The candidate councilor was therefore surprised when he saw in the polling station’s process story that he had not received any votes. He said he knew immediately that it was wrong and raised the alarm with the municipality. A recount followed.
21 votes have now gone to Thomas, who was number 8 on the electoral list. “The votes accidentally went to someone else. This has been repaired,” says a spokesperson for the municipality of Heusden.
This message does not come as a surprise to Van Os. Still, it feels like a relief to him. “I was 100 percent sure that something had gone wrong,” he responds. “People from the neighborhood also said ‘I’m sure I voted for you’.”
Corrected
His 21 votes went to Sander Hoogendoorn, who was one place above him. A mistake that Van Os had already expected. “They were sleeping at the polling station,” he says. “I wanted justice. Fortunately, it has now been corrected,” he says with a satisfied tone.
A total of 155 residents of the municipality voted for him. Even though the official results will only be announced on Thursday, Van Os has already announced that he will not be joining the municipal council. “I will remain involved as a council member supporter.”
