The votes have been counted and recounted and the people of Cranbrook have spoken: the East Hill lands will not be brought into the City's boundary. The official results of the referendum have been released, with 2,616 people voting No and 2,581 people voting Yes, with a difference of 35 votes in favour of No.

In addition to the voting that took place at the Tembec Gym on Saturday, 1,592 people voted in the mobile and advance polls. With 5,228 ballots considered altogether (of those 31 were rejected), voter turnout was approximately 35 per cent.

The No votes were in the lead for most of the counting, although never by very much. The only time Yes votes were ahead was when the mobile and advance poll ballots were separated from Saturday's ballots.

In the advance and mobile polls 924 people voted No and 668 people voted Yes. At the time 2,275 of Saturday's ballots had been counted and 1,214 people had voted Yes and 1,061 people had voted No. Despite 153 more votes for Yes than No from Saturday's ballots (at the time), the votes from the mobile and advance polls allowed No to remain in the lead.

At the end of the first count of all the ballots No had 2,623 votes and Yes had 2,589. In the recount the votes for No went down by seven for a No total of 2,616 and the votes for Yes went down by eight for a Yes total of 2,581.

The polls were open between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Saturday and the counting of the votes began around 8:30 p.m. The initial count of votes was done by 10 p.m. The recount began shortly after and concluded around 11:30 p.m. After the recount Chief Election Officer Leanne Jensen went over every rejected ballot with scrutineers, which concluded at about 12:20 a.m.

The official results of the referendum that asked Cranbrook voters “Should the City of Cranbrook expand its city boundary to include the private lands on the East Hill?” were released Monday, Nov. 14.