An 18-year-old was yesterday declared a councillor in a tally room that, just last year, was his classroom.
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Eric Kerr has been elected to the Wodonga council.
He is the youngest councillor in the city’s history.
The former Wodonga Senior Secondary College student said he hadn’t been game to look as the screen as the computer generated count and preference distribution flashed up the result.
“My scrutineers had been saying I was up there all day but I didn’t believe it until the very end,” Cr Kerr said.
“I was really trying not to think about it, my mind was saying ‘be calm it might not happen’.
“And then it came up and all the other candidates were patting me on the back, hugging me.”
The new councillor went home last night to a family roast.
“It was a great way to celebrate — with family,” he said at this morning’s declaration of the result.
“I guess mum will be happy she doesn’t have to drive her car around Wodonga all the time with my poster in one of the windows.
“In some ways running for council was out of the blue but then I have been around council for some time, involved in the youth red-carpet awards, on the youth leadership team; so I was always going to have a go at council. It it was just a question of when.
“I did a letterbox drop of 3500 flyers, used Facebook and just kept talking to people.
“You can only try and that’s what I did.”
