MENTOR, Ohio — A single vote decided Mentor’s at-large city council race, final results showed Tuesday, when the Lake County Board of Elections certified recounts in two of the closest contests from the Nov. 4 election.

Unofficial results originally showed Annie Payne narrowly ahead of Brian Cook, but late-arriving absentee ballots and valid provisional ballots shifted the lead to Cook by just one vote.

The final certified tally remained unchanged after a hand recount: Cook won with 5,554 votes, while Payne finished with 5,553.

The Board of Elections unanimously voted Tuesday morning to certify both recounts, closing out the last unresolved contests from the November election.

Payne said in a Dec. 2 statement on Facebook that she did not concede the race because of the one-vote margin,

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