In the end, it took the final tally of absentee ballots and early voting ballots to decide the heated Temple mayoral race and Mayor Rick Ford narrowly survived the challenge of former Mayor Lester Harmon.

After regular ballots were counted, it appeared Harmon had defeated Ford by 20 votes. However, once more than 40 absentee and early voting ballots were officially counted Ford had escaped with a two-vote win — 303 votes to 301 votes. Barring a challenge or a possible recount that overturns the results, the victory allows Ford to claim his second term. He defeated Harmon four years ago to win his first term.

“It makes me feel great that I had the confidence of the people and I appreciate the confidence they have in me,” Ford said. “I’m really sort of speechless right now because I was behind and then all of a sudden I’m ahead.”

Ford said he is ready to move beyond a viscous and negative campaign that included separate challenges against both his and Harmon’s qualifications to run.

“I’m ready to put this behind us,” Ford said. “This election has really fractured the city and it’s time for us to put this behind us and everybody start working together to make Temple the great place that it can be. There was a lot of negative campaigning that I was very disappointed in, but now that the election is over let’s move forward.”

Calls to Harmon’s cell phone were not returned.

In Villa Rica, the Ward 4 race between incumbent Councilman Joey Kelley and challengers Patrick Henrickson and James Scales will be decided with a Dec. 1 runoff between Kelley and Henrickson after neither candidate was able to gain 50 percent plus one vote. Kelley garnered 153 votes — 47 percent — to Henrickson’s 148 votes — 46 percent. Scales only captured 25 votes, or 8 percent.

For Kelley, who has served one full term and a partial term after former Councilwoman Jean Williams stepped down, this is his second runoff. He won the special election to fill Williams’ vacant seat after a runoff as well.

Kelley said he wasn’t surprised that the three-way race for his Ward 4 post will end with a runoff on Dec. 1, but he added he has no doubt he’ll end up on top when the dust settles.

“I expected a runoff, but I didn’t expect it to be that close,” he said. “I’ve been in this situation before and I anticipate over the next few weeks to continue to get my message out there. I appreciate the type of campaign he ran and look forward to the runoff, but I fully expect to gain on him because I’m not going to take the runoff lightly.”

Henrickson, too, said he was surprised that the final tally Tuesday night ended so close between he and Kelley. However, he said he and those supporting him have worked hard during the campaign and will continue to do so to ensure victory.

“We’ve really worked hard to get the votes we did and I believe if everyone who said they were going to vote would have actually gotten out we would have won, but I feel confident that we just need to go back and hit a few more people and I believe we will win in the end,” he said.

Also in Villa Rica, former Councilman Rusty Dean won the Ward 3 seat over Edward Hurst with a vote of 35 to 18 — 66 percent to 44 percent, and Ward 5 Councilman Woody Holland won a fourth term over former City Councilman Scott Bates by a vote of 58 votes to 50 votes — 54 percent to 46 percent.

Dean, who is also a former Carroll County commissioner, said he’s excited about the opportunity to represent the people of his ward again on the City Council.

“I’m proud to be back representing a portion of Villa Rica, the folks that I love and the place that I call home,” he said. “The low turnout was expected, but it’s still disappointing to have less than 10 percent of the voting population turn out for an election.”

Dean added that he was ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work when he takes office in January.

“I’ve already talked to several constituents and groups about some issues they have and I’m ready to go to work on them,” he said.

Holland said he was pleased that his constituents had the confidence to allow him to serve them for another four years.

“I appreciate all the people who came out and voted for me and I’d like to thank Scott Bates for running a good, clean, fair campaign,” he said.

Two other Temple races were decided Tuesday, though by much wider margins of victory than the mayoral race.

In Temple’s Ward 1, challenger Terron Bivins defeated first-term Councilman Larry Estvanko with 351 votes to Estvanko’s 225 votes. There were also four write-in votes in the race.

“I’m very pleased,” Bivins said. “It definitely has been a learning experience.”

In Temple’s Ward 2 race, Jay Mann defeated Howard Walden by a count of 350 votes to 237 votes with two write-in votes cast. For Mann, the victory was especially sweet because he’ll be taking over the seat being vacated by his father, Larry Mann, who served more than 20 years on the City Council before deciding to not seek another term.

“It absolutely feels great and I’m super excited about the future,” Jay Mann said. “I’m looking forward to making a difference.”