That's how close the race for Cary's District A was.

And it's not over.

The Wake County Board of Elections said Monday that 11 provisional votes pushed the race for the town's biggest district to a Nov. 3 runoff between Republican incumbent Jennifer Robinson and Democratic challenger Lori Bush.

In the Oct. 6 election, Robinson secured 49.97 percent of the vote. Bush had 42.3 percent.

The remaining votes went to Cindy Sinkez and Terry Thorne, who are now out of the race.

Candidates need to have one vote more than 50 percent to claim a win.

So election officials turned to the provisional votes this week.

Had Robinson claimed enough of them, she would have earned her third term.

If not, Bush said she would challenge Robinson in a runoff.

An unofficial count of provisional ballots in Wake County added four votes to Robinson's tally, for a grand total of 1,885. Bush had seven votes, for a total of 1,599.

Pandora Paschal, deputy director of the Chatham County Board of Elections, said a ruling would be made Tuesday concerning one provisional vote cast there for the District A race.

But given the spread of provisional votes in Wake, the Chatham vote won't stop a runoff.

Robinson, who has been on the council for a decade, said she plans to spend the next month shoring up support for the November runoff, and working to "dispel the myths and lies" she claims have been leveled against her by Bush supporters.

She added that she would be glad to meet Bush in one or more debates in the coming weeks.

Bush suggested that idea in an earlier post-election interview. "I'm privileged to have the vote of so many people," Bush said Monday.

Although municipal elections in Cary are officially nonpartisan, a runoff win for Bush would color the Town Council a new shade of blue. In its present form, the seven member council is comprised of four Democrats and three Republicans. Representing the GOP on the board, besides Robinson, are Jack Smith and Don Frantz.

If Bush were to win, the council would be 5-2 in favor of Democrats.

The District A race indicates just how split the town is politically.

Cary is divided almost evenly among Republicans, Democrats and those not affiliated with either party, according to voter statistics provided by the Wake County Board of Elections.

As of Oct. 2, the GOP held a small majority in Cary with 28,713 registered voters in the town. Unaffiliated voters took second place with 28,187. Democrats followed with 27,912 voters.