Craig Lowe had 35 reasons to celebrate Tuesday night.
In the thinnest of margins, only 35 votes separated City Commissioner Lowe from his opponent in the mayoral race, Don Marsh.
And while it was enough to celebrate at The Top Restaurant, it wasn’t enough to cinch an official victory.
Since Lowe only secured 50.1 percent of the vote, the final say on who gets the keys to City Hall will be decided by an automatic recount.
According to Pam Carpenter, supervisor of elections, there needs to be a margin of victory greater than half a percentage point to officially deem a winner.
“Stay tuned,” she said. “We have some work to do.”
The official results are expected to be released Friday when the results are certified.
For Lowe, this is just another bump on a rocky campaign trail that was not exempt from political mudslinging and personal attacks.
“This was a very unusual campaign,” he said. “We chose to focus on the issues ... We will press forward.”
Although he did not accuse Marsh of such campaign tactics, Lowe said it is clear who ran a positive and who ran a negative campaign.
“Frankly, you can’t run a city on negativity,” he said.
Lowe is no stranger to marginal wins. In 2003, he secured a victory in the District 4 City Commission race by 16 votes.
As Lowe awaits the certification of the results, he said he will continue with the same zeal he has maintained throughout the campaign.
"We will remain focused with our eyes on what lies ahead," he said.
Despite the lack of a definitive conclusion in the mayoral race, the seat for District 4 City Commission went to Randy Wells, who got 1,305 votes, compared to opponent Penny Wheat’s 793 votes.
With his wife and 5-year-old daughter by his side, Wells credited his triumph to his family and enthusiastic support from the District 4 community, including students.
“I believe our city benefits from the involvement and engagement of students,” he said. “This community is a better community when students are involved.”
For Gainesville voters, there was another victory.
Of the 72,769 registered voters in Alachua County, 12,187, or 16.75 percent, cast their ballots. This was an increase from the first election, which saw 10,180 cards cast, despite runoff elections historically facing lower turnouts.
Marsh, however, was still not satisfied.
Snagging 49.9 percent of the vote, Marsh said that he was not content with the turnout, dubbing those who did not make it to the polls “slackers.”
Although the results did not bring him any closure, he said he would not be spending the next few days worrying about the outcome of the recount.
“It’s really out of my hands,” he said. “I’m not going to be the one counting the votes.”
Clarification 4/14/10: The initial headline indicated that Lowe had won the election. He has not and a recount Friday will determine the winner.
