gchildress@heraldsun.com; 918-1046
Chapel Hill -- The tightly contested mayor's race between Town Council members Mark Kleinschmidt and Matt Czajkowski is now official.
The Orange County Board of Elections conducted its canvass of the 2009 municipal election on Tuesday and the outcome was unchanged.
Kleinschmidt did gain seven votes to give him 4,176 or 48.63 percent of the vote. He won by just 107 votes and will be the town's next mayor.
Czajkowski received 4,070 votes, 47.40 percent of the votes cast in the mayor's race.
Kleinschmidt will be sworn in Dec. 7, along with Laurin Easthom, Penny Rich, Gene Pease and Ed Harrison, who were the top four vote getters in the Town Council race.
The council has scheduled that same date to hear from residents who have applied to fill the vacancy created by Bill Strom's resignation. A special meeting has been called for Dec. 14 so the council can name Strom's replacement.
Strom's resignation this summer cast a cloud of controversy over the election because he resigned too late to allow citizens to elect his successor on Nov. 3 election.
A group of residents have petitioned the council to appoint the fifth-place council finisher on election day to the vacancy. That would be Matt Pohlman.
Supporters of that idea argue that it's the fairest way to replace Strom because it would be akin to voters electing his replacement.
