The four incumbent Vision Vancouver councillors secured resounding endorsements from more than 4,000 members who filed into Charles Tupper secondary school yesterday to choose the centre-left party's civic slates.

Councillor Raymond Louie topped the race for the council slate, followed by councillors Heather Deal, Tim Stevenson, and George Chow.

The four garnered more than 3,000 votes each out of the more than 4,500 votes cast in the balloting that started from 10 a.m. and lasted until 7 p.m.

The other Vision council nominees are former Green party trustee Andrea Reimer, former mayoral aide Geoff Meggs, UBC medical-school professor Kerry Jang, and Kashmir Dhaliwal, president of the Khalsa Diwan Society.

A handbill printed on white glossy paper handed out during the daylong event seemed to foretell the results.

The flyer urged Vision members to support the "winning team" of the party's mayoral candidate, Gregor Robertson, and it contained the names and photos of Louie, Deal, Stevenson, and Chow.

The same leaflet then called upon members to vote for "four more candidates of your choice", leaving four spaces blank.

And then there was a sample ballot printed on blue paper that endorsed eight council hopefuls, who would later emerge as the top eight in the count: Reimer, Meggs, Jang, and Dhaliwal.

However, Vision will conduct a recount for the eighth spot as Dhaliwal's tally was only 17 votes ahead of David Eby, a lawyer who advocates for the homeless and downtrodden.

As Vision president Mike Magee explained to party members who went to Science World for the results, rules provide for a recount if the margin of votes is one percent or less.

Magee said that the results of the recount will be available in three days.

Robertson had earlier endorsed the four incumbent Vision councillors.

Louie, who previously lost the mayoral nomination to Robertson, endorsed Jang, Meggs, Dhaliwal, and college educator Heather Harrison, who placed 10th.

Jang, Reimer, and Dhaliwal had earlier formed a minislate. On the day of the vote, Louie told the Straight that he expected that Reimer and Jang would be nominated. Louie predicted a close fight among Eby, Meggs, Harrison, and Catherine Evans, who placed 11th.

"I know Kashmir is working hard," Louie said at the time of the South Asian community leader.

Also earlier on voting day, Stevenson told the Straight that incumbent councilors had to work as hard as the other aspirants to get nominated.

"The only difference is Gregor endorsed us because of the work we've already put in and the experience we bring," Stevenson said.

Vision Vancouver results for council nominations (top eight chosen):

1. Raymond Louie 3,746

2. Heather Deal 3,704

3. Tim Stevenson 3,271

4. George Chow 3,248

5. Andrea Reimer 2,988

6. Geoff Meggs 2,951

7. Kerry Jang 2,387

8. Kashmir Dhaliwal 2,240

9. David Eby 2,223

10. Heather Harrison 2,034

11. Catherine Evans 1,717

12. Rey Umlas 1,217

13. Ray Lam 1,127

14. Demitri Douzenis 1,094

15. Vaune Adams Kobler 1,031

16. Doug Bencze 724