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Island living suited most of the southern Salt Lake County residents who voted to spurn annexation to an adjacent city in favor of staying part of the unincorporated area.
To illustrate that point, Sandy Hills Community Council chairman and annexation opponent Ron Faerber dressed up like he was headed to Hawaii, a straw hat on his head and leis around his neck, for Tuesday's canvass on the Community Preservation election.
He was ready to celebrate County Clerk Sherrie Swensen's final tabulations, which showed that residents of five of the 39 islands wanted to give up their unincorporated status and annex into Sandy, Cottonwood Heights or South Jordan.
Some, like Faerber's island, which was designated as No. 12, voted convincingly to stay unincorporated. Its 93.3 percent vote in favor of maintaining the status quo was impressive even compared to the 79 percent vote that unincorporated status received from residents living in the largest island, Willow Creek.
Given that show of support for the county, Faerber asked the County Council to "remember we're islanders and not castaways" in future dealings with their issues.
In some areas, residents' feelings were not so clear cut.
For instance, there was a tie in Island 16, which stretches from 9400 South to 9800 South for about two blocks on the east side of 1300 East. The canvass had it 82-82.
"That's the first time in 15 years I've seen this," longtime County Councilman Michael Jensen said of the tie vote.
County attorneys quickly looked through election laws and concluded that ballot propositions with equal numbers of votes fail.
So Island 16 residents will remain unincorporated, as will the residents living in the four islands where no votes were cast. They will be linked to six other islands where the final vote was 1-0. In three other islands, unincorporation won on 2-0 votes.
In the more populated townships, Tuesday's canvass added little drama to what already was virtually assured by the wide vote margins disclosed on election night.
Millcreek will become Salt Lake County's 17th city. The canvass gave city status 66.5 percent of the vote (10,364 to 5,225) — a solid victory just three years after an incorporation vote lost by 20 percentage points.
But this time around, incorporation supporters got their vote out: The question attracted ballots from 55.3 percent of Millcreek's registered voters, topping the countywide average of 40.4 percent.
The additional 25,633 votes counted since election-night results were posted also had no appreciable difference in the outcome of the votes in the county's other five townships, Swensen noted.
Magna, Kearns, Copperton, White City and Emigration Canyon all opted convincingly to become metro townships.