Democrat Wins Boca Raton Mayoral Race by 5 Votes

Andy Thomson, a Democrat and longtime city councilman, was certified as the new mayor of Boca Raton, Florida, on Friday after defeating two Republican challengers in a municipal election decided by a margin of just five votes. The outcome ends more than three decades of Republican control over the city's top office and marks the first time a Democrat has won the mayoral seat since at least the 1990s.

The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections confirmed the results following an initial count, a machine recount and a manual review of overvotes and undervotes. Thomson received 7,572 votes, or about 39.7 percent of the total, edging out Mike Liebelson with 7,567 votes and Fran Nachlas with 3,967 votes. Early tallies had shown Thomson ahead by a single vote, prompting the automatic recounts under state law. Supervisor Wendy Link described the process as accurate and transparent, according to local reports.

The narrow victory stemmed from a split in the Republican vote between Liebelson, a vice mayor and establishment figure, and Nachlas, a business owner running as an outsider. Combined, the two Republicans garnered around 60 percent of the ballots in a race with no runoff...