Voting closed at noon yesterday, and preliminary results had Ms Battson on 1372 votes, Bruce Barry with 1125 and Alan Cutler on 494.
Ms Battson fills the seat left by Quentin Smith, who was voted on to the Queenstown Lakes District Council in a by-election in July.
Ms Battson said she was grateful to those who had voted for her, and wanted to acknowledge the strong showing by Mr Barry.
"I thought this would be quite close with Bruce, and I understand what it’s like to be on the losing side because it’s happened to me previously."
She had "huge respect" for the Wanaka ward councillors and their predecessors, and looked forward to working with fellow community board members to progress the "vision, planning and funding" of projects.
Electoral officer Jane Robertson said the preliminary voter return was 35.62%, or 3004 voting papers.
The final result, which would be released early next week, would include a small number of special votes and 85 votes that were hand-delivered to the council office in Wanaka yesterday.
Ms Battson will be sworn in at the board’s next meeting on November 30.
