In the end, it took the final tally of absentee 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 Harmon held a 20-vote lead, but once more than 40 absentee and early voting ballots were officially counted Ford had escaped with a two-vote win — 303 to 301. 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.

Whitesburg Mayor Amy Reeves Williford won her bid for re-election with a 16-vote margin over challenger R.H. Vanlandingham.

In Carrollton, voters approved a referendum that authorizes the City Council to allow Sunday sales of alcohol by the drink in restaurants. The measure was passed handily with more than 58 percent approval, 1,233 votes to 833.

In Temple, Ford said he is ready to move beyond a 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.

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

Calls to Harmon’s cell phone were not immediately returned Tuesday night.

The incumbent was not so lucky in the Temple Ward 1 race, which saw Larry Estvanko lose to challenger Terron Bivins, 60 percent to 40 percent. In the Temple Ward 2 race, Jay Mann defeated Howard Walden, 59 percent to 40 percent.

The only contested Carrollton City Council race was that between Mike Patterson and Casey Vance, each man hoping to replace former Councilman Rusty Gray in the Ward 2 seat. After the votes were tallied, Patterson won by slightly more than 1 percent, with 340 votes to Vance’s 330 votes.

“I’m real excited about the opportunity to serve, mainly, and I’m glad we got all those people out to vote,” Patterson said. “We both ran a good race, and we both worked hard, and it could have gone either way.”

The contested Mt. Zion City Council races saw both incumbents losing. In the Post 3 race, challenger Andrew Richie beat incumbent Kathy Albright 60 percent to 40 percent, and in the Post 4 race, incumbent Donald Newman lost to Bobby Mullenix 95 votes to 54 votes.

In Villa Rica, Rusty Dean beat Edward Hurst for the Ward 3 seat on the City Council, 66 percent to 33 percent.

A runoff between incumbent Joey Kelley and Patrick Henrickson will be needed to determine the Villa Rica Ward 4 seat. Kelley received 153 votes (47 percent) to Henrickson’s 144 (46 percent). A third candidate, James Scales, had 25 votes.

The runoff between Kelley and Henrickson will be held Dec. 1.

The Ward 5 race saw incumbent Woody Holland beat Scott Bates by a total of eight votes, with Holland receiving 53 percent and Bates receiving 46 percent respectively.

(Times-Georgian staff writer John P. Boan and The Villa Rican editor Spencer Crawford contributed to this report.)