Ford is the new mayor of Birchwood and Riehle is the new boss of Stillwater Township | Rare Techy

After all the votes were tallied, Margaret Ford found herself running for mayor of Birchwood Village, even though her name never appeared on the ballot.

Ford won the election with 271 Election Day votes. The Birchwood Village Town Council reviewed the results Tuesday night.

Ford, a 62-year-old retired attorney, originally planned to run for mayor after Mayor Mary Wingfield announced she would not seek re-election, but changed her mind when a family member developed a possible health problem.

With the health issue resolved, Ford decided to launch a write-in campaign that involved knocking on nearly every door in the city and flooding the city with campaign signs. The signs were put up in the night hours of September 30.

“We flooded the zone,” Wingfield said. “We did it in the dark, so when everyone woke up the next morning they were like, ‘What just happened?'”

The other candidates, James Nelson and Michael McKenzie, received 171 and 148 votes respectively.

Stillwater Township also had a write-in race, as no one filed for Township Supervisor Seat 2.

There were 60 write-in votes cast in that race, and the City Council, which met Tuesday, declared Jim Riehle the winner with 14 votes. Riehle, a 3M master technician, ran for mayor in 2008.

Riehle is the husband of Township Clerk Barb Riehle.

Township Board Chairwoman Sheila-Marie Untiedt said Barb Riehle was not in a conflict of interest running for office because Jim Riehle’s name “wasn’t on the ballot, instead he was a write-in candidate.”

As of Tuesday evening, Jim Riehle had not yet accepted the position, Untiedt said.

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