Rochester Life

Salvia, Bikson, Sage and Gould earn Top 4 Honors and City Council Seats!

Council Seats

City of Rochester voters were solely focused on voting to fill four City Council seats. There were no proposals and no National, State or County candidates on the ballot.

The top three vote-getters will serve a 4-year term. The candidate with the 4th highest vote total will earn a 2-year term.

With 100% of precincts reporting (total of six precincts) here are the City of Rochester Election Results…

The Top Four

In the City of Rochester, it appears attaining at least 1,000 votes is a minimum threshold to obtain a City Council Seat.

Incumbent Nancy Salvia, currently serving as Mayor Pro-Tem, received the highest number of votes with 1,470. Salvia will now serve a 4-year term ending 2025.

Salvia shared, "I am so honored – to not only be re-elected by the residents of Rochester but to earn the highest vote count in this election. I look forward to continuing to work hard on behalf of Rochester residents. Thank you!"

Current City of Rochester Mayor, Stuart Bikson, gathered the second most votes at 1,382. The victory means Bikson will serve a 4-year term through 2025 ensuring he will experience the 25th anniversary of his initial 1999 City Council victory while in office.

"I am honored to be reelected to the Rochester City Council. I am looking forward to serving our community and working to continue to make Rochester a great place to live. I will work to keep Rochester a safe and desirable city for all of our residents", Bikson commented after the election.

The third highest vote total goes to Steve Sage. Sage earned a two-year term when he finished 4th in 2019, he improved upon that by one and will now serve a 4-year term through 2025.

Sage offered, "I would like to thank the citizens of Rochester that placed their trust in me via their vote. I'm excited to continue the positive momentum we started in 2019 and look forward to serving on Council for the next 4-years."

Earning the final 4th place spot with 1,044 votes is newcomer Douglas Gould. Gould, a professor at Oakland University, will now serve a 2-year term through 2023.

After the election Gould said, "I feel so privileged to be voted on to the Rochester City Council. I'm excited to serve the City in this capacity. Many thanks to everyone that contributed to my campaign and to all of you that took time to chat at your front doors, and to everyone that helped along the way - without the wisdom, encouragement and support of our fellow citizens I would not have this opportunity. Most of all - thanks to my wonderful family for all of the support and patience. I couldn't have made it without my incredible field manager and best human, my beautiful wife!"

The New Council

Tuesday’s four victors, Salvia, Bikson, Sage and Gould will join Mark Albrecht, Amanda Harrison, and Ann Peterson to complete the seven members of the Rochester City Council.

Here is the make-up of the new City Council with length of term. The bolded Councilmembers were elected this Nov 2, 2021.

Mark Albrecht (2019-2023)
Stuart Bikson (2021-2025)
Douglas Gould (2021-2023)
Amanda Harrison (2019-2023)
Ann Peterson (2019-2023)
Steve Sage (2021-2025)
Nancy Salvia (2021-2025)

Mayor

The mayor is not elected directly by the public, rather, each November the council elects a member to serve as mayor for a 1-year term. The current mayor is Stuart Bikson.

Voter Turnout

In 2020, the City of Rochester had 11,401 registered voters. With 8,440 ballots cast in the 2020 Presidential year election, the city’s voter turnout was an impressive 74%.

In this November 2021 election, without any National, State, or County issues/proposals on the ballot, a total of 1,911 ballots were cast. That plummets the voter turnout to 17%, a 57 point drop from 2020’s 74% turnout.

The absentee turnout was huge, with 70% of the 1,911 votes cast by absentee, leaving only 572 people that physically showed up in-person to vote amongst the six city precinct locations.

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