Jo Galer remains in the box seat in the Dunedin City Council by-election, but her lead over Aaron Hawkins has been cut to 250 votes.
She had been 746 votes clear when progress results were released on Tuesday, after about 85% of returned ballots had been counted.
Preliminary results were released last night and they showed the race had tightened up. There were 548 special votes yet to be processed. A final result is expected today.
Ms Galer said last night the situation was nerve-racking.
‘‘I’m ready to live with whatever result there is,’’ she said.
‘‘If it’s not to be, it’s not to be.
‘‘It’s an uncertain situation.’’
A win for Mr Hawkins still appeared unlikely, but Ms Galer was prepared to consider the possibility.
‘‘I might be the bridesmaid — if that’s the case, I’ll live with it.’’
Second-placed Mr Hawkins said on Tuesday a different outcome was mathematically possible, but highly unlikely.
He could not be reached for comment last night.
A by-election was required to replace Cr Jules Radich, who died in January.
Fourteen candidates stood for the position.
The by-election was run under the single transferable vote (STV) system, which involves voters ranking candidates.
Under STV, the least-favoured candidate drops out one by one and their votes are reallocated in accordance with voter preferences.
When it came down to the final two candidates, preliminary results had Ms Galer on 10,087 votes, ahead of former mayor Mr Hawkins on 9837.
More than 31,000 people voted in the by-election. Voter turnout was sitting at 32.84%.