An election Ward 4 recount Nov. 15 confirmed Amy Faulkingham is the newest member of the Westbrook City Council.

She and other newly elected and reelected Westbrook officials will be sworn in on Dec. 2 in a ceremony at Westbrook Middle School.

Faulkingham upset incumbent Gary Rairdon in Westbrook’s Ward 4 for a three-year term. She took the recount by 13 votes, losing only two votes from her initial Nov. 5 election victory edge of 15.

“This was my first run for office,” Faulkingham said in an email Tuesday to the American Journal. “This is the first time I’ve felt so connected to the place I live, and I felt strongly about becoming more involved in my community.”

She and her family have lived in Westbrook for almost seven years. She has an 8-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter. “My son is a student in the Westbrook school system and has had a great experience thus far,” she said.

Faulkingham is a data analyst working on a project related to the opioid crisis response.

In the initial election results City Clerk Angela Holmes provided, Faulkingham defeated Rairdon with 897 backers to Rairdon’s 882, with 289 blank ballots. Then, she tallied 896 in the recount over Rairdon’s 883 and 286 blanks.

The recount was conducted in a conference room in the Public Safety Building. “It was the most cordial recount I have ever witnessed,” Holmes said at Monday’s City Council meeting.