FOSTER — Democrat Roger L. Hawes was elected to the Town Council yesterday in a special election to fill the seat vacated when Harold R. Shippee abruptly resigned in March.

Hawes, 77, of 33A Cucumber Hill Rd., garnered 341 votes, or over half the total 665 votes (including seven mail ballots), according to unofficial results from the town clerk’s office shortly after polls closed at 9 p.m.

Officials and candidates said it was a larger-than-expected turnout for a special election for a single local elected seat. The other candidates, Gordon E. Rogers, a Republican, and Jonathan T. Vorro, an independent, garnered 249 and 82 votes, respectively.

Hawes will serve the remainder of Shippee’s term, which expires in December. He has also announced that he is running for reelection in November. Rogers and Vorro are also running in that election.

Hawes, a retired postman, won in his first run for public office. He previously served on the Town Charter Commission in the early 1980s. His election leaves the five-member council with a full contingent of Democrats.

A steady trickle of people came out to vote yesterday, but the largest groups came in the late afternoon and after dinner, according to town officials. There were a number of young, first-time voters, officials noted. The election cost the town an estimated $5,000.

The campaign was brief, and the candidates, with the exception of Hawes, did not take out advertisements in the local newsletter or use direct mailings, although lawn signs were evident around town for months.

“It was mostly word of mouth,” said resident Dena Lucia, who voted for Rogers. “Because it’s a small town, we all pretty much follow closely what goes on in town.”

Said Vorro, the independent candidate, the day before the election: “It’s basically a popularity contest.”

In his campaign fliers, Hawes criticized Rogers for being among the majority of residents who voted against a proposed traffic light at the intersection of Routes 6 and 94 at a recent Special Financial Town Meeting. Rogers says he simply rejected the town contributing any money toward the traffic light, which he says should have been fully financed by the state.

Resident Ray Wasilewski said he voted for Hawes because he remembered Hawes as the neighborhood mailman growing up. “He is an honest and good man, and we need that in the town of Foster.”

pmarcelo@projo.com