TELLURIDE – After receiving 60 percent of the votes counted in the Nov. 8 election, Stu Fraser was reelected as Mayor of Telluride while incumbent candidate Thom Carnevale and first-time candidate were Kristen Permakoff were elected to the Telluride Town Council.

Tuesday’s election was the first opportunity for Telluride to test its Instant Runoff System since it was adopted three years ago. The new system, whereby voters are asked to vote for a second choice for mayor, wasn’t needed this time around. The number of votes needed to achieve a clear majority on Tuesday was 372 votes. Fraser came in well above that mark by receiving 446. Mayoral candidates Chris Myers and David Oyster received 219 and 74 votes respectively.

For Fraser, Tuesday’s dominant victory wasn’t something he’s used to. In 2001, Fraser tied for fourth in the race for town council and famously drew the ace of spades to break the tie win that seat. And then there’s his 15-vote victory over Terry Tice four years ago for mayor. To win a race by a wide margin of votes was something Fraser just didn’t expect.

“I was sitting there while they were putting numbers up and I couldn’t believe them,” Fraser said. “It’s never been like this. When the final numbers were put up, I looked at them and thought to myself, I am so humbled by everything that has taken place here.”

Fraser said the support of Telluride’s voters proves that the work he and members of town council have done is in tune with the community.

“I looked at the results and thought that there was such validation that I’d grown, town council has grown and the community has grown,” he said. “It proved that we all matured in a way that was acceptable to the community.”

Along with the support of the community, Fraser said he couldn’t have done it without the support of his wife, Ginny, who not only supported his run for a second term but helped hand address 1,100 letters that went out to the community during his campaign.

“She took this on with me and that was as important to me as the final tally on votes,” he said.

Going into Tuesday evening, Carnevale admits he had no idea who was going to win the two open council seats and had a feeling it was going to be a tight race. But once he read the final numbers, capturing even more votes than Fraser – he was pleased to find that voters are happy with the work he’d accomplished in his first term as town councilmember.

“I was really elated to find that the work I had done the last four years was acceptable,” Carnevale said on Wednesday. “That made me very, very happy. I will continue in these next four years to work as hard as I can to make sure the people are listened to and that we deal with our infrastructure problems. We need to continue to be fiscally responsible and we need to watch the international economy so we can gauge what we can do in our own community.”

Carnevale received the most votes in the election for the two vacant town council seats with 496. Permakoff received 238 votes.

Former town councilmember Mark Buchsieb received 227 votes, Eileen McGinley received 202, Benjamin Steenblik received 107, and Robert Coe received 74.

Jerry Greene, who ran uncontested for town moderator, received 546 votes.

Permakoff was unavailable for comment before deadline on Wednesday.