SOUTH PORTLAND – Alan R. Livingston remains the winner of the District 5 Board of Education race after the city did a recount of the votes on Monday.

In fact, Livingston ended up getting even more votes as the result of the four-hour recount. Election Day tallies showed him with 4,166 votes but after the recount he had 4,174, according to city clerk Susan Mooney.

His challenger, Tappan C. Fitzgerald II, was listed at 4,153 votes after the election, but ended up with fewer votes as the result of the recount: 4,149.

Under the original tallies, Fitzgerald, who works in public relations for Hannaford, was trailing Livingston, a math teacher at Cheverus High School, by just 13 votes.

Fitzgerald said earlier this week that he asked for the recount because the vote was so close. “I’m simply looking for it to be right,” he said.

He could not be reached for comment on Tuesday before Current deadline. But he had said previously he would be satisfied whatever the outcome.

He said he and Livingston agree on most issues.

“If I win, I think I’ll do a fine job and if Alan wins I think he’ll do a fine job,” Fitzgerald said.

Neither he nor Livingston have held elected office previously.

The recount was held at the City Council chambers at City Hall. The council supervised the process. The count began about 4:20 p.m. and ended about 8:15 p.m., Mooney said. All ballots were counted by hand, she said.

The District 5 seat currently is held by Stacy Gato, who did not run for re-election.

The city on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, originally reported that Fitzgerald received 4,152 votes.

But City Clerk Susan Mooney said she spent Wednesday, Nov. 4, going over voting tallies and found a discrepancy in the count of some hand-counted ballots. That resulted in an extra vote for Fitzgerald, who then hds 4,153 votes before the recount.

South Portland’s turnout was higher than expected in an off-year election, with about 63 percent of the city’s approximately 18,000 going to the polls. There were so many voters that the city ran out of ballots and had to photocopy some. The photocopied ballots could not be read by machine and had to be counted by hand, Mooney has said.