Anita Mullane has won back her seat as 2nd Ward alderman against incumbent Alderman Luke Kantor.
Mullane was alderman from 2014 to 2017 and went on to serve a term as a county legislator in 2019 before losing to Rick Abbott in the race for the 13th District in 2021 and returned to civilian life.
But not for long.
One of Mullane’s main reasons for running again in the 2023 election season was to protect ambulance transport service being provided by the Lockport Fire Department.
“I’m running to keep the ambulance in the City of Lockport,” she said to the US&J in October.
Now Mullane said she’s “thrilled” and “honored to represent the 2nd Ward” once more. She said she’s begun working again as people in the community have already reached out to her, even as votes were being counted.
The contest between Mullane and Kantor was hard won with a five-vote difference between the two. Mullane gathered 481 votes to Kantor’s 476.
Still, Mullane said she was disappointed by the low turnout for this year’s election.
“I wish more people would’ve exercised their right to vote and I think my opponent does, too,” she said.
Mullane finished election night, winning with an unofficial total of 10 votes. Later, more absentee votes were counted and an unofficial five-vote difference was determined. The ballots were then hand-counted by the Niagara County Board of Elections.
Niagara County Board of Elections Commissioner Jennifer Sandonato said Friday that the outcome for the 2nd Ward race remained the same.
Mullane said her faith in the security of this year’s election process has been affirmed as the hand count showed the same results as the original. She said the count took approximately four hours to complete.
Besides being happy to have won, Mullane said she was excited to get to work.
“I’m ready to go on January 1st,” she said.
Kantor could not be reached for comment.