Melanie Lekocevic is reporting in The Daily Mail following a count of absentee ballots Thu., Mar. 19, incumbent Athens Mayor Chris Pfister has defeated his Republican challenger Rick Surrano. The count on election night had Surrano besting Pfister by 13 votes. However, during the absentee count, Pfister picked up 26 votes and Surrano, 11, leaving the final tally 269 to 267 in Pfister's favor. Pfister told the paper he originally thought the election would be fairly easy for him, but in the closing months he realized the numbers were tightening significantly. He said, in his opinion, this occurred because of his position on the West Point Partners power line project. The four-way trustee race was also a tight one, with Maria Butler and Robert June eventually declared winners. Following the absentee count in Coxsackie Thursday, Republican incumbents Mayor Mark Evans and Trustees Stephen Hanse and Paul Sutton swept to victory. Read both stories in The Daily Mail.