Wake elections officials counted ballots in the Cary Town Council District B race today. When they were done, auto shop owner Don Frantz had a tenuous lead of 28 votes -- 1,390 to 1,362 -- over Vickie Maxwell, a homemaker and community activist.

There are still at least 35 and as many as 52 provisional ballots to count.

The candidates were the top two vote-getters in Tuesday's election. Under the instant runoff rules, the winner will be determined by the second choice of the more than 500 voters who picked the third place finisher, incumbent Nels Roseland.

The election won't be final until Tuesday, when Wake's Board of Elections will add provisional ballots to the tally and declare official results.

Maxwell, 50, could still win if she receives a healthy majority of the valid provisional ballots.

"I feel like I owe it to my voters and supporters to hang in there until the end," Maxwell said today.

Maxwell and Frantz hugged and congratulated each other on good campaigns after watching officials count the instant-runoff ballots at the elections board office in Raleigh.

Frantz, 36, owns Frantz Automotive Center in downtown Cary.

"I'm ready to get to work and help move Cary in a positive direction," he said Thursday.

The election result won't likely have a great impact on Cary's growth policies. Both Frantz and Maxwell had both called for better growth management, and Cary voters elected three other slow-growth candidates Tuesday to the town's seven-member council.

"Growth is healthy," Frantz said. "My issue is with the type of growth we've been seeing, especially high-density, mixed-use developments. We need to refocus Cary on the kind of development that made it the great place that it is: quality single-family construction on appropriately sized lots. I like suburban."

Of Roseland's 791 votes, 549 picked one of the other two as a second choice. More of them favored Maxwell next -- 301 versus 248.

Cary and Hendersonville agreed this year to test the state's new instant-runoff procedure. By letting voters mark their second and third choices on election day, it avoids the time and expense of conducting -- and campaigning for -- a separate runoff election in which turnout would drop off.

The experiment seems to have worked well technically, though the wisdom of the policy could remain a subject of debate.

Despite his lead, Frantz said he doesn't like the new procedure.

"I would rather have had a real runoff," he said. "This is the most nerve-wracking experience of my life. And in reality, some people got two votes. I have a fundamental problem with that."

A traditional runoff election, too, results in some people voting twice, just at different times.

Maxwell said she favors instant runoffs.

"I think it's fine," she said. "It saves the county money. And I don't have to raise more money and campaign for 30 more days."

Wake's elections director, Cherie Poucher, said the instant-runoff balloting went well and was easier to perform than to explain.

"I'm very happy with it," she said.

If she loses, Maxwell said she would have to think about trying again for Cary's town council.

"It's sort of like having a baby," she said. "I'm going to have to think about it before I do it again. Right now, I think I'll go home to my three cats and take a nap."