Fancher tops Avon council vote as unofficial results put four in line for seats
Jennie Fancher led a seven candidate field for four Avon Town Council seats in the Nov. 3 election, according to unofficial results the town released on Nov. 4. Ruth Stanley, Rich Carroll and Alan Sandberg hold the remaining three seats, with a 21 vote gap between fourth and fifth place.
The Town of Avon has released the unofficial results of its Nov. 3 Town Council election, sharing the current totals as made public by the Eagle County Clerk and Recorder. Jennie Fancher finished first with 852 votes, followed by Ruth Stanley with 770 and Rich Carroll with 697. Alan Sandberg is fourth with 573 votes. Behind them, Justin Chesney received 552 votes, Frederick (Rick) Sudekum received 507, and Gregg M. Cooper received 390. Four council seats were to be filled in the election, so the current top four, Fancher, Stanley, Carroll and Sandberg, are the candidates in line for the seats. Local radio station KZYR, in its Nov. 4 Zephyr Press News summary, reported the same top four in the same order, with Fancher as the top vote getter.
The result closes a race this newspaper has followed since October, when seven candidates stood for the four open seats. The vote was part of the county's coordinated election, run by the Eagle County Clerk and Recorder. Avon voters cast their ballots in a countywide election that the town says drew 23,628 ballots from 35,213 active voters, a turnout of 67.10 percent. For comparison, the town notes that 28,225 ballots were cast countywide in the 2024 presidential election and 22,485 in the 2022 midterm election. The 2026 ballot total is approximately 5.1 percent higher than the 2022 total, although the turnout percentage is slightly lower. The town says it does not yet have a turnout figure for Avon alone.
Why the fourth seat does not trigger a mandatory recount
The closest contest in the race is the one for the last seat. Sandberg, in fourth place with 573 votes, leads Chesney, in fifth with 552, by 21 votes. The town walked through the recount law in its release. Colorado's recount statute, C.R.S. 1-10.5-101(1)(b) in the town's citation, works off the gap between the lowest winning candidate and the highest losing one in a multi seat race. A recount becomes mandatory only when that gap is no more than half of one percent of the lowest winner's vote total. Half a percent of Sandberg's 573 votes works out to 2.865 votes, so a 21 vote gap sits far outside that line, and on the town's reading the law does not compel a recount here.
A recount can still be requested. Colorado law, cited by the town as C.R.S. 1-10.5-106, lets an interested party ask for one even when none is required. The ask has to be in writing, notarized, and filed inside the deadline the statute sets, and whoever asks pays for the recount. The county clerk and recorder's office, which ran the coordinated election, would run that recount as well.
Unofficial until the canvass is complete
None of this becomes official until the county finishes its canvass and certifies the results. The town states the deadline for certification of the election results is Nov. 25, 2026. The newly elected council members will be sworn in at the Dec. 8, 2026 Town Council meeting. The town closed its release by thanking all of the council candidates and the Avon voters who participated in this year's election. Any change between now and certification would come through the county's canvass, and the four names at the top of the unofficial count would change only if that process changes the net margin between Sandberg and Chesney by at least 22 votes.
