VIDEO: One Vote Decides The Outcome In The Caledonia Mayoral Race

CALEDONIA, Miss. (WCBI)-The wait is finally over, Caledonia knows who will lead the small town for the next four years.

On Tuesday, Mitch Wiggins defeated incumbent Mayor Bill Lawrence by one vote.

The mayoral race has been tight from the very beginning.

In the general election on June 6th, the mayoral race was counted three times, and that resulted in three different outcomes.

A second election was held yesterday, and that election ended in a tie.

One affidavit vote proved to be the difference maker in the race.

Mayor – Elect Wiggins said an array of emotions hit him all at once when he heard his name called, declaring him as the Mayor of Caledonia.

“It was almost shock and disbelief,” said Wiggins. “It’s Almost kind of a David and Goliath battle.”

The fierce race ended in a narrow 199 to 198 vote.

“I have a deep gratitude for the citizens of Caledonia for trusting in me their wishes for the next four years,” Wiggins expressed.

Wiggins is a Caledonia native and previously served on the board of alderman.

“I just feel and overwhelming sense of pride and joy in my hometown and the feelings that they have towards me,” he said.

The mayor elect is eager to begin serving in his new role.

However, while he’s anxious, he acknowledges that there are a few challenges that lie ahead.

Wiggins said his slim margin of victory indicates that the town his divided, which is a problem he immediately wants to fix.

“I think the biggest challenge right now is breaking the mold of that’s the way we’ve always done it mentality,” said Wiggins. “We’ve got a lot of new people in town, we’ve got a lot of new people on the board and we need to be innovative in our ideas and we need to think outside the box.”

Making improvements to the parks throughout the town is also a top priority.

Wiggins said he wants to be open and transparent to all of the citizens in Caledonia, and he’s confident that under his leadership, he can help his hometown grow into the city he knows it can be.

“Of course our town has a limited budget so we’re going to have to be creative on funding,” the mayor elect explained. “There’s some plans in place right now. We’re going to sit down with our board. I have proposed to our board members that within the first 60 days, I want to sit down and have a strategic planning style meeting where we put white boards up and we all put our ideas down together. We mash them altogether, we come up with a plan and an agenda. We act on those, we put a timeline together how we’re going to accomplish those goals.”

After the election, Lawrence shook Wiggins’ hand and congratulated him on a hard fought race.

As of now, a date has not been set on when Wiggins will officially take office.